A Short Life of Nicolás Gómez Dávila
Nicolás Gómez Dávila was born in Cajicá, Colombia (near Bogotá), on May 18, 1913, into a wealthy bourgeois family. When he was six, his family moved to Europe, where they lived for the next seventeen years. During his family¶s stay in Europe, young Nicolás would spend most of the year at a school run by Benedictines in Paris, but would often go for his vacations to England. However, during his time in Paris he was beset by a long-lasting illness which confined him to his bed for most of two years. It was during this illness that under the direction of private tutors he learned to read Latin and Greek fluently and to love the classics. His formal education ended at the secondary level. When Gómez Dávila turned twenty-three, he moved back to Bogotá, and almost immediately upon his return married Emilia Nieto Ramos. According to German writer Martin Mosebach, she was already married when she met Gómez Dávila, and had to obtain an annulment in order to be able to marry him. However their marriage may have started out, it lasted for over fifty years. After the wedding, the young couple moved into the house in Bogotá that was to remain their home for the course of their entire marriage. There they raised three children: two sons and a daughter. After establishing his household, Gómez Dávila, or ³don Colacho´ as he became known to his friends, led a life of leisure. Because his own father was for most of his long life able to attend to the family carpet factory, Gómez Dávila only had to manage the business for a short period himself, before in turn passing it on to his son. However, even during the time when he bore primary responsibility for the business, he did not pay excessive attention to it. Mosebach reports that Gómez Dávila generally only visited the office once a week at midday for about ten minutes, in order to tell the business manager to increase profits, before going out to lunch with friends at the Bogotá Jockey Club, where he was an active member, playing polo and even serving as an officer for a while. (He had to give up polo, though, after injuring himself on his horse²he was thrown off while trying to light a cigar.) Gómez Dávila was in fact a well-connected member of the Bogotá elite. Besides his membership in the Jockey Club, he helped Mario Laserna Pinzón found the University of the Andes in 1948. Furthermore, Gómez Dávila¶s advice was sought out by Colombian politicians. In 1958, he declined the offer of a position as an adviser to president Alberto Llera after the downfall of the military government in Colombia. In 1974, he turned down the chance to become the Colombian ambassador at the Court of St. James. Although he was well disposed to both governments, Gómez Dávila had resolved early on in his ³career´ as a writer to stay out of politics. Although some of his friends were disappointed that he did not accept these offers, they later concluded (according to Mosebach) that he was right to refuse the honors²he would have been a disaster as a practical politician. Gómez Dávila instead spent most of his life, especially after his polo injury, reading and writing in his library. He was a voracious reader, often staying up well into the night to finish a book. By the end of his life, he had accumulated a library of approximately 30,000 volumes. Indeed, his family had trouble disposing of many of the books because so many appealed primarily to specialized scholarly interests, and because so many were in languages other than Spanish. 2

Gómez Dávila, besides learning French, English, Latin, and Greek during his childhood, could read German, Italian, and Portuguese, and was even reportedly learning Danish before his death in order to be able to read Søren Kierkegaard in the original. According to Francisco Pizano, Gómez Dávila regretted that he never succeeded in learning Russian²he started learning it too late in life. In addition to reading, Gómez Dávila enjoyed the company of friends whom he regularly invited to his home for lunch on Sunday afternoons. After the meal, he would retreat into his library with his friends for hours-long, wide-ranging discussions. The result of all this reading and discussion can be found in our author¶s works. Gómez Dávila, however, published these works only very reluctantly during his lifetime. Indeed, his first two works were available only to his family and friends in private editions. In 1954, at the urging of his brother Ignacio, he published Notas (Notes), a collection of aphorisms and short reflections, most no longer than a few paragraphs. In 1959, he published Textos I (Texts I), a collection of essays. The intended second volume never appeared. For nearly twenty years after these hesitant forays into publishing, Gómez Dávila re-worked what he had already produced into the aphorisms which constitute the bulk of his output as an author and for which he is best known. This period of silence ended in 1977 with the publication of two volumes of Escolios a un Texto Implícito (Scholia on the Margin of an Implicit Text). This collection of aphorism was followed in 1986 by two more volumes of Nuevos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (New Scholia on the Margin of an Implicit Text). A final volume of aphorisms was published in 1992 as Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (Further Scholia on the Margin of an Implicit Text). Late in life, Gómez Dávila also wrote two shorter pieces. The first, De iure (De jure) was printed in the spring 1988 issue of the Revista del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario. His final work, El Reaccionario Auténtico (The Authentic Reactionary) was published posthumously in the spring 1995 issue of the Revista de la Universidad de Antioquia; it is perhaps the most programmatic of his works. None of these works was published commercially, and none was ever printed in any great numbers during his lifetime. Notas, Textos I, and all five volumes of Escolios have recently been made available again by Villegas Editores, a Bogotá publisher. Villegas Editores has also put out a single-volume selection of aphorisms, compiled by Gómez Dávila's daughter, Rosa Emilia Gómez de Restrepo, entitled Escolios a un Texto Implícito: Selección. Gómez Dávila himself did nothing to attract attention to his work. Indeed, his deliberate choice of obscure publishing houses and tiny printing runs seems almost intended to condemn his works to oblivion. Word of Gómez Dávila, however, began to spread slowly toward the end of his own lifetime. Strangely enough, he became best known not in his native Colombia or in other Spanish-speaking countries, but in the German-speaking world. Philosopher Dietrich von Hidlebrand apparently was the first to make any reference in print in Germany to Gómez Dávila. A few years before his death, German translations of his aphorisms began to appear at the Karolinger Verlag in Vienna. Among the Germans who have professed their admiration of Gómez Dávila are several noted writers, including the late Ernst Jünger, Martin Mosebach, and Botho Strauß. Since his ³discovery,´ knowledge of his work has spread in other countries in Europe due to the work of a small group of devoted admirers, most especially the late Franco Volpi in Italy. Translations of his works are now also available in French, Italian, and Polish. Gómez Dávila died in his library on the eve of his 81st birthday, on May 17, 1994. 3

A Brief Overview of the Thought of Nicolás Gómez Dávila
I: Introduction The most subversive book in our time would be a compendium of old proverbs. Nicolás Gómez Dávila was a man of wide-ranging interests, and his aphorisms reflect that fact. Although he was to a certain extent an autodidact²he received an excellent secondary education, but never attended university, instead relying on his voluminous library²he may rightfully be considered one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. Among the scholarly topics he wrote about are religion, philosophy, politics, history, literature, aesthetics, and more. Besides these scholarly interests, however, many of his aphorisms betray a more personal dimension, with intimate observations on topics like love and the process of aging. Gómez Dávila by all accounts valued his privacy and was concerned primarily with finding the truth for himself. Why then, would he write down his thoughts and observations in aphorisms and even publish them, however secretively? Gómez Dávila was, quite possibly, writing a subversive collection of proverbs himself. He disavowed originality, and maintained that he desired only wisdom for himself, but despite his protests that he was not trying to convert anyone to his way of thinking, perhaps he secretly did harbor a hope that he might rouse a few souls from their dogmatic slumber. Of course, Gómez Dávila never resorted to a loud and vulgar way of awakening us moderns; he wrote his aphorisms so that anyone who happened to come across them might be inspired by a wisdom that is ancient yet ever young. Unfortunately, this wisdom is largely foreign to us today, and precisely for that reason, so subversive. There are, then, quite a few aspects of Gómez Dávila¶s work that merit closer examination. II: Why aphorisms? The first and most obvious is the very form of Gómez Dávila¶s work: aphorisms. There has been some speculation about the motivations behind Gómez Dávila¶s choice to write aphorisms, even though he himself gave the most important reason in Notas. In this early work, he stated that the only two ³tolerable´ ways to write were a long, leisurely style, and a short, elliptical style. However, since he did not think himself capable of the long, leisurely style, he opted for aphorisms. Aphorisms, according to Gómez Dávila, are like seeds containing the promise of ³infinite consequences.´ Another way to think of these aphorisms is to say that aphorisms are like the summits of ideas, which allow the reader to imagine the massive mountain beneath. The sheer number of aphorisms, then, helps take place of the long, metaphysical meditation Gómez Dávila wished for; each aphorism puts another in its proper context, and taken all together, they provide an outline of the implicit text mentioned in the title. But just as importantly for Gómez Dávila, these aphorisms, while providing context for each other, cannot be made into a thoughtdeadening system. Another function that Gómez Dávila¶s aphorisms served was, as their Spanish title (Escolios a un Texto Implícito) suggests, as notes on books he had read. The Spanish word escolio comes 4

from the Greek (scholion). This word is used to describe the annotations made by ancient and medieval scribes and students in the margins of their texts. Many of these aphorisms, then, are allusions to other works. They constitute the briefest of summaries of works he read, conclusions he had drawn from these works, or judgments on these works. Finally, Gómez Dávila¶s use of aphorisms was also motivated in part by polemical considerations. In the modern age, the reactionary cannot hope to formulate arguments that will convince his opponent, because he does not share any assumptions with his opponent. Moreover, even if the reactionary could argue from certain shared assumptions, modern man¶s dogmatism prevents him from listening to argumentation. Faced with this situation, the reactionary should instead write aphorisms. Gómez Dávila compares his aphorisms to shots fired by a guerrilla from behind a thicket on any modern idea that dares advance along the road. The reactionary will not convince his opponent, but he may convert him. III: What is a reactionary? The second extraordinary feature of Gómez Dávila¶s work is its ³reactionary,´ not merely conservative, content. ³Reactionary´ is mostly used today as an abusive epithet, sometimes as a synonym for that all-purpose slur, ³fascist.´ However, Gómez Dávila proudly labeled himself a reactionary and actually created a literary persona for himself as ³the authentic reactionary,´ precisely because of the stigma attached to the term. Gómez Dávila¶s lifework was to be an authentic reactionary. The term ³reactionary,´ then, demands some explanation. The reactionary, in the common political sense, is a rare breed in America, primarily because of America¶s own acceptance of the Enlightenment. The reactionary, in European history, as the name indicates, is fighting against something. That something is the French Revolution (and the Enlightenment). The conflict between the forces of the Enlightenment and the ancien régime was much more polarizing in Europe than it ever was in America. While America in the aftermath of its own revolution certainly witnessed its own share of power struggles between politicians with traditional, more aristocratic leanings (Federalists) and more radically democratic tendencies (Republicans), both sides generally accepted the legitimacy of Enlightenment ideals of liberal politics, which included democracy, individual rights, and a commercial society, among other things. There was, ex hypothesi, never any serious possibility that a group of disaffected American Tories would conspire to restore the authority of the British crown over the newly-independent United States. In Europe, on the other hand, and especially in France, the conflict between the heirs of the French Revolution and its opponents²the original reactionaries²still raged during the time Gómez Dávila lived in Paris. Indeed, reactionary ideals exercised a powerful influence over certain sectors of French society until after World War II. One important reason for the persistence of reactionary ideals in France was the Catholic Church¶s own resistance to modern liberalism (e.g., Pius IX¶s Syllabus of Errors) and the persecution it often faced at the hands of secular governments following the Revolution, especially the Third Republic. In France, Catholicism and reaction were often overlapping (though not always identical) categories. The tension between modern liberalism and reaction continued to be felt in French Catholic circles during Vatican II. Though reaction as a cohesive movement largely died in the wake of the 5

Council, it has survived in some French Catholic circles to this day, most visibly among the Lefebvrites (SSPX). Gómez Dávila¶s brand of reaction, however, was different. He did not mean to identify himself exclusively with a narrow political position. In several aphorisms, he acknowledged that there is no possibility of reversing the course of history. Traditionalism, in his eyes, could never be a viable basis for action. Indeed, the reactionary¶s task is to be the guardian of heritages, even the heritage of revolutionaries. This certainly does not mean that Gómez Dávila made his peace with democracy; all it means is that he also did not allow himself to be deluded by promises of the restoration of the old order. Moreover, in matters of religion, despite his disdain for Vatican II and his fierce adherence to the traditional Latin Mass, which he shared with most Catholic reactionaries, he recognized that the ordinary reactionaries, the so-called ³integralists´ of the period, were incapable of renewing the Church. For instance, he maintained in one aphorism that the Church needed to make better use of the historical-critical method of Biblical research²a suggestion which would make many ordinary reactionaries furious. Finally, his appreciation of some authors not usually associated with conservative Catholicism, such as Nietzsche and Heidegger, might make some ³traditionalist´ readers nervous. If Gómez Dávila¶s brand of reaction was different, what then did he actually stand for? For Gómez Dávila, the reactionary¶s task in our age is to resist democracy. By democracy he means ³less a political fact than a metaphysical perversion.´ Indeed, Gómez Dávila defines democracy as, quite literally, ³an anthropotheist religion,´ an insane attempt to rival, or even surpass, God. The secret of modernity is that man has begun to worship man, and it is this secret which lurks behind every doctrine of inevitable progress. The reactionary¶s resistance, therefore, is religious in nature. ³In our time, rebellion is reactionary, or else it is nothing but a hypocritical and facile farce.´ The most important and difficult rebellion, however, does not necessarily take place in action. ³To think against is more difficult than to act against.´ But, all that remains to the reactionary today is ³an impotent lucidity." Moreover, Gómez Dávila did not look forward to the establishment of a utopia; what he wanted was to preserve values within the world. For this purpose, not force but art was the more powerful weapon. IV: Sensual, skeptical, religious The third extraordinary feature of these aphorisms is Gómez Dávila¶s unmistakable personality. Much of the pleasure of reading the Escolios consists in slowly getting to know this personality. While Gómez Dávila generally did not indulge in autobiography, in the privately-published Notas he was slightly less guarded about himself. In one line he declares: ³Sensual, skeptical, and religious, would perhaps not be a bad definition of what I am.´ These are the three basic strands of his personality and his work; they belong together, despite any contradictions the reader might think exist between them. Sensual Gómez Dávila was aware that most people view sensuality and religion as contradictory, but he was determined to keep both these basic features of his personality together. He did not deny that sensuality, in isolation, can be a vice; instead of being discarded, however, it needs to be joined 6

with love²love not of an abstract concept, but of an individual. Indeed, the object of love is the ³ineffableness of the individual.´ In Gómez Dávila¶s philosophy, the sensual, by virtue of its union with love, is intimately united with the individual. But, what exactly is the sensual? If the sensual is merely defined as the opposite of the abstract, an important element of the sensual will be missing. What is missing is value, an important and recurring term in the Escolios. ³The sensual is the presence of a value in the sensible.´ One of the most important ways of perceiving the presence of values²which are immortal²is through art. A good painting, for example, gives the spirit ³a sensual enrichment.´ True sensuality wants its object to enjoy eternity. This mention of eternity, in conjunction with the immortality of values, indicates the ultimate goal of sensuality. If the sensual as the embodiment of values, aspires to eternity, it must be a longing for the only being who is eternal, God. This explains why for Gómez Dávila it is not sensuality, but abstraction, that leads us away from God. This praise of sensuality may sound foreign to many Christians today, but one cannot help but be reminded of St. Thomas Aquinas¶ statement: ³It must be that God is in all things most intimately´ (Summa Theologiae, I, q. 8, art. 1). Skeptical As has already been hinted at, Gómez Dávila shares with the Romantics and the forefathers of conservatism, such as Joseph de Maistre and Edmund Burke, a distrust of Enlightenment reason and intellect. His references to reason (razón) and intellect (intelecto) are rarely complimentary. Indeed, to avoid confusion with these Enlightenment constructions, he prefers to use the term ³intelligence´ or ³understanding´ (inteligencia) to designate man¶s ability to perceive truth. The greatest truths, however, are often perceived not by means of abstract concepts, but religious rituals. This skepticism accounts, moreover, for his unsystematic method of composition and his preference for aphorisms. No system is capable of embracing the entire universe in concepts. Not only is Gómez Dávila extremely skeptical of man¶s ability to understand the world, he is also very cautious with respect to man¶s ability to do what is right. ³Good will´ and ³sincerity´ are not excuses for our mistakes, but instead only make our mistakes more serious. Not surprisingly, he is a strong believer in the reality of sin. Gómez Dávila, however, did not merely repeat old criticisms of the Enlightenment worship of an abstract reason; he turned skepticism into a strength. This can be seen from his discussion of ³problems´ and ³solutions,´ two words that recur throughout his work. Gómez Dávila turns their customary relationship on its head. For him, problems are good, and solutions are bad. His first, and most obvious, objection to solutions is that all the modern world¶s solutions simply have not worked. Indeed, the modern world is ³drowning in solutions.´ This observation, true as it may be, still does not reach the core of Gómez Dávila¶s objections to solutions. It is not only modern man who is incapable of finding solutions to the world¶s problems; no man can devise solutions to his problems. Problems are not to be solved; they are to be lived out in our lives. For Gómez Dávila, man is an animal that has only a divine solution. Skepticism, then, is not a way of finding reasons not to believe in God, but rather of ³pruning our faith´ in God. Another word that recurs throughout the Escolios, often (though not always) in connection with skepticism, is ³smile.´ I do not have time to make a complete study of the connection between 7

skepticism and smiles, but I suspect that Gómez Dávila is the first philosopher to develop a metaphysics of the smile. Religious Some readers may be inclined to dismiss or at least minimize the role of religion in Gómez Dávila¶s worldview. That would be a fundamental mistake, however, in the most literal sense of the world. The foundation of Gómez Dávila¶s thought, of his being, was God. As seen above, his reactionary critique of the modern world is essentially a religious one. The reactionary rebellion, in which Gómez Dávila calls us to join him, consists of recognizing God for who He is, and recognizing man¶s utter dependence on God. ³Between the birth of God and His death the history of man unfolds.´ This is not a bizarre reversal of Nietzsche¶s death of God scenario, or a rehash of Feuerbach¶s thesis that man creates the gods in his own image. On the contrary, what Gómez Dávila is saying is that it is our belief in and knowledge of God that make us human and separate us from the animals. The ability to perceive mystery and beauty in the things of this world is unique to man; the apes do not feel the ³sacred horror´ that men feel. What results from this sacred horror? ³God is born in the mystery of things.´ This feeling of sacred horror is something each individual must experience for himself. For this reason, Gómez Dávila¶s religion was intensely personal: ³To depend on God is the being¶s being.´ ³God exists for me in the same act in which I exist.´ Indeed, the entire tone of his Escolios is one of contemplation in a pervasive silence, which is only broken by the faint sound of Gómez Dávila writing a comment into one of his notebooks. At the same time, Gómez Dávila¶s personal religiosity did not become an attack on religious institutions as such, and he always remained a son of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, he was not afraid to criticize the Church. Indeed, he wrote numerous aphorisms lamenting developments in the Church, especially in the wake of Vatican II. To pick just one example, ³the sacrifice of the Mass today is the torturing of the liturgy.´ But he always strove to make sure that his criticisms of the Church were ³thought from within the Church.´ Much of the poignancy of Gómez Dávila¶s laments stems, of course, precisely from his great love for the Church. Despite his disappointment with the present, he was mindful that there is no going back to the primitive Church of the Acts of the Apostles, much less to ³the lone Christ of the gospels.´ Gómez Dávila¶s Catholicism, then, is a combination of the metaphysical, the anthropological, the aesthetic, and the historical. Indeed, all the different threads of Gómez Dávila¶s thought, all the many aphorisms, converge in his belief in God. V: Conclusion Finally, two suggestion for those readers whose interest in Gómez Dávila has been piqued by this short essay. First, Gómez Dávila cited Nietzsche in his epigraphs for a reason. He would have nothing but scorn for those readers who enthusiastically quote him without grasping his ³very definite philosophical sensibility.´ The reader should carefully ponder an aphorism before quoting it²and then only at his own risk.

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Second, Gómez Dávila¶s aphorisms are truly existential. For Gómez Dávila philosophy is not a purely intellectual discipline, but rather a way of life. Each aphorism should act as a call not just to discern the truth, but to assimilate it and to live it.

#112 ²Tan repetidas veces han enterrado a la metafísica que hay que juzgarla inmortal. ²They have buried metaphysics so many times that it must be considered immortal. #113 ²Un gran amor es una sensualidad bien ordenada. ²A great love is a well ordered sensuality. #114 ²Llamamos egoísta a quien no se sacrifica a nuestro egoísmo. ²We call an egoist anyone who does not sacrifice himself to our egoism. #115 ²Los prejuicios de otras épocas nos son incomprensibles cuando los nuestros nos ciegan. ²The prejudices of other ages are incomprehensible to us when our own blind us. #116 ²Ser joven es temer que nos crean estúpidos; madurar es temer serlo. ²To be young is to fear being thought stupid; to mature is to fear being stupid. #117 ²La humanidad cree remediar sus errores reiterándolos. ²Mankind believes that it corrects its mistakes by repeating them. #118 ²El que menos comprende es el que se obstina en comprender más de lo que se puede comprender. ²He who understands least is he who he stubbornly insists on understanding more than can be understood. p. 41 #119 ²Civilización es lo que logran salvar los viejos de la embestida de los idealistas jóvenes. ²Civilization is what old men manage to salvage from the onslaught of young idealists. #120 ²Ni pensar prepara a vivir, ni vivir prepara a pensar. ²Thinking does not prepare one to live, nor does living prepare one to think. #121 ²Lo que creemos nos une o nos separa menos que la manera de creerlo. ²What we believe unites or divides us less than how we believe it. #122 ²La nobleza humana es obra que el tiempo a veces labra en nuestra ignominia cotidiana. ²Human nobility is a work that time occasionally fashions in our daily ignominy. 26

#123 ²En la incoherencia de una constitución política reside la única garantía auténtica de libertad. ²In the incoherence of a political constitution resides the only authentic guarantee of liberty. #124 ²Depender sólo de la voluntad de Dios es nuestra verdadera autonomía. ²To depend solely on God¶s will is our true autonomy. #125 ²La elocuencia es hija de presunción. ²Eloquence is the child of presumption. #126 ²Negarnos a considerar lo que nos repugna es la más grave limitación que nos amenace. ²Refusing to consider what disgusts us is the most serious limitation threatening us. p. 42 #127 ²Todos tratamos de sobornar nuestra voz, para que llame error o infortunio al pecado. ²We all try to bribe our voice so that it will call sin ³error´ or ³misfortune.´ #128 ²El hombre no crea sus dioses a su imagen y semejanza, sino se concibe a la imagen y semejanza de los dioses en que cree. ²Man does not create his gods in his image and likeness, but rather conceives himself in the image and likeness of the gods in which he believes. #129 ²La idea ajena sólo interesa al tonto cuando roza sus tribulaciones personales. ²The idea of another only interests the fool when it touches on his own personal tribulations. #130 ²Si Dios fuese conclusión de un raciocinio, no sentiría necesidad de adorarlo. Pero Dios no es sólo la substancia de lo que espero, sino la substancia de lo que vivo. ²If God were the conclusion of a syllogism, I would not feel compelled to adore Him. But God is not merely the substance of what I hope for, but the substance of what I live. #131 ²¡Qué modestia se requiere para esperar sólo del hombre lo que el hombre anhela! ²What modesty is required to expect from man only what he yearns for! #132 ²¿Quién no teme que el más trivial de sus momentos presentes parezca un paraíso perdido a sus años venideros? ²Who does not fear that the most trivial of his present moments will seem a lost paradise in years to come? 27

p. 47 #160 ²No es el origen de las religiones, o su causa, lo que requiere explicación, sino la causa y el origen de su oscurecimiento y de su olvido. ²It is not the origin of religions, or their cause, which requires explanation, but rather the cause and origin of their eclipse and neglect. #161 ²Al través de mil nobles cosas perseguimos a veces solamente el eco de alguna trivial emoción perdida. ¿Morará mi corazón eternamente bajo la sombra de la viña, cerca a la tosca mesa, frente al esplendor del mar? ²In the midst of a thousand noble things we sometimes pursue only the echo of some trivial lost emotion. Will my heart rest for eternity beneath the vineyard¶s shadow, near the rough, unfinished table, in the sight of the splendor of the sea? #162 ²Participar en empresas colectivas permite hartar el apetito sintiéndose desinteresado. ²Participating in collective enterprises allows the appetite to be satiated, even as it feels uninterested. #163 ²El cemento social es el incienso recíproco. ²What cements society together is mutual flattery. #164 ²El hombre no se sentiría tan desdichado si le bastara desear sin fingirse derechos a lo que desea. ²Man would not feel so unfortunate if it were enough for him to desire without pretending to have a right to what he desires. #165 ²La vanidad no es afirmación, sino interrogación. ²Vanity is not an affirmation but a question. #166 ²La más insensata promesa nos parece devolución de un bien perdido. ²The most foolish promise appears to us to be the return of a lost good.

#378 ²Llámase problema social la urgencia de hallar un equilibrio entre la evidente igualdad de los hombres y su desigualdad evidente. ²What is called the social problem is the urgent necessity of finding a balance between the evident equality of men and their evident inequality. #379 ²El proletario no detesta en la burguesía sino la dificultad económica de imitarla. ²The proletarian does not detest the bourgeoisie for any reason other than the economic difficulty of imitating it. p. 79 #380 ²Los políticos, en la democracia, son los condensadores de la imbecilidad. ²Politicians, in a democracy, are the condensers of idiocy. #381 ²El amor ama la inefabilidad del individuo. ²Love loves the ineffableness of the individual. #382 ²Mientras mayor sea la importancia de una actividad intelectual, más ridícula es la pretensión de avalar la competencia del que la ejerce. Un diploma de dentista es respetable, pero uno de filósofo es grotesco. ²The greater the importance of an intellectual activity, the more ridiculous the pretension in enhancing the competence of one who carries it out. A dentistry degree is respectable, but a philosophy degree is grotesque. #383 ²Reformar la sociedad por medio de leyes es el sueño del ciudadano incauto y el preámbulo discreto de toda tiranía. La ley es forma jurídica de la costumbre o atropello a la libertad. ²To reform society by means of laws is the dream of the incautious citizen and the discrete preamble to every tyranny. Law is the juridical form of custom or the trampling of liberty. #384 ²La legitimidad del poder no depende de su origen, sino de sus fines. Nada le es vedado al poder si su origen lo legitima como lo enseña el demócrata. ²The legitimacy of power depends not on its origin, but on its ends. Nothing is forbidden to power if its origin grants it legitimacy, as the democrat teaches. #385 ²El catolicismo no resuelve todos los problemas pero es la única doctrina que los plantea todos. ²Catholicism does not solve all problems but it is the only doctrine that raises them all. 57

p. 80 #386 ²No es solamente entre generaciones donde la experiencia se pierde, sino también entre períodos de una misma vida. ²It is not only between generations where experience is lost, but also between periods of an individual life. #387 ²La inteligencia del progresista nunca es más que el cómplice de su carrera. ²The progressive¶s intelligence is never more than the accomplice of his career. #388 ²La arquitectura moderna sabe levantar cobertizos industriales, pero no logra construir ni un palacio ni un templo. Este siglo legará tan sólo las huellas de sus trajines al servicio de nuestras más sórdidas codicias. ²Modern architecture knows how to erect industrial shacks, but it does not succeed in building either a palace or a temple. This century will leave behind only the tire-tracks of the transports it employed in the service of our most sordid greed. #389 ²El hombre moderno no imagina fin más alto que el servicio a los antojos anónimos de sus conciudadanos. ²Modern man does not imagine any end higher than to serve the anonymous whims of his fellow citizens. #390 ²El egoísmo individual se cree absuelto cuando se compacta en egoísmo colectivo. ²Individual egoism believes it is absolved when it is grouped together into collective egoism. #391 ²La vida común es tan mísera que el más infeliz puede ser víctima de la codicia del vecino. ²Common life is so miserable that the most unfortunate man can be the victim of a neighbor¶s envy. #392 ²El sufragio universal no pretende que los intereses de la mayoría triunfen, sino que la mayoría lo crea. ²Universal suffrage is not designed to make the majority¶s interests triumph, but to make the majority believe their interests triumph.

#426 ²Los antojos de la turba incompetente se llaman opinión pública, y opinión privada los juicios del experto. ²The whims of the incompetent crowd are called public opinion, and the expert¶s judgments private opinion. p. 86 #427 ²El primer paso de la sabiduría está en admitir, con buen humor, que nuestras ideas no tienen por qué interesar a nadie. ²The first step of wisdom is to admit, with good humor, that there is no reason why our ideas should interest anybody. #428 ²³Racional´ es todo aquello con lo cual un trato rutinario nos familiariza. ²³Rational´ is everything with which routine dealings familiarize us. #429 ²En el lóbrego y sofocante edificio del mundo, el claustro es el espacio abierto al sol y al aire. ²In the dismal and suffocating building of the world, the cloister is the space open to the sun and to the air. #430 ²La libertad no es indispensable porque el hombre sepa qué quiere y quién es, sino para que sepa quién es y qué quiere. ²Liberty is indispensable not because man knows what he wants and who he is, but so that he can find out who he is and what he wants. #431 ²Para que la libertad dure debe ser la meta de la organización social y no la base. ²If liberty is to last, it should be the goal of social organization and not the starting point. #432 ²La pasión igualitaria es una perversión del sentido crítico: atrofía de la facultad de distinguir. ²The egalitarian passion is a perversion of the critical sense: atrophy of the faculty of discrimination.

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p. 87 #433 ²Lo ³racional,´ lo ³natural,´ lo ³legítimo,´ no son más que lo acostumbrado. Vivir bajo una constitución política que dura, entre costumbres que duran, es lo único que permite creer en la legitimidad del gobernante, en la racionalidad de los usos, y en la naturalidad de las cosas. ²The ³rational,´ the ³natural,´ the ³legitimate,´ are nothing more than what is customary. To live under a political constitution that endures, among customs that endure, is the only thing that allows us to believe in the legitimacy of the ruler, in the rationality of habits, and in the naturalness of things. #434 ²Ni la historia de un pueblo, ni la de un individuo, nos son inteligibles, si no admitimos que el alma del individuo o del pueblo puede morir sin que mueran ni el pueblo ni el individuo. ²The history of neither a people nor an individual is intelligible to us if we do not admit that the individual¶s or the people¶s soul can die without either the people or the individual dying. #435 ²La ³cultura´ no es tanto la religión de los ateos como la de los incultos. ²³Culture´ is not so much the religion of atheists as of the uncultured. #436 ²La idea del ³libre desarrollo de la personalidad´ parece admirable mientras no se tropieza con individuos cuya personalidad se desarrolló libremente. ²The idea of ³the free development of personality´ seems admirable as long as one does not meet an individual whose personality has developed freely. #437 ²Ayer el progresismo capturaba incautos ofreciéndoles la libertad; hoy le basta ofrecerles la alimentación. ²Yesterday progressivism captured the unwary by offering them freedom; today all it needs to do is offer them food. p. 88 #438 ²Mientras más libre se crea el hombre, más fácil es adoctrinarlo. ²The freer man believes he is, the easier it is to indoctrinate him. #439 ²En las democracias llaman clase dirigente la clase que el voto popular no deja dirigir nada. ²In democracies they call the ³directing class´ that class which the popular vote does not let direct anything.

#454 ²Un pensamiento católico no descansa, mientras no ordene el coro del héroes y los dioses en torno a Cristo. ²A Catholic thought does not rest until it puts the chorus of the heroes and the gods in order around Christ. #455 ²Madurar no consiste en renunciar a nuestros anhelos, sino en admitir que el mundo no está obligado a colmarlos. ²To mature consists not in renouncing our desires, but in admitting that the world is not obliged to fulfill them. #456 ²Para resultar inteligente en política, basta encontrar un adversario más estúpido. ²To be intelligent in politics, it is enough to go up against a dumber opponent. #457 ²Cuando una mayoría lo derrota, el verdadero demócrata no debe meramente declararse vencido, sino confesar además que no tenía razón. ²When he is defeated by a majority, the true democrat should not merely acknowledge that he was defeated, but also confess that he was wrong. p. 91 #458 ²El catolicismo enseña lo que el hombre quisiera creer y no se atreve. ²Catholicism teaches what man would like to believe yet does not dare to. #459 ²El pobre no envidia al rico las posibilidades de comportamiento noble que le facilita la riqueza, sino las abyecciones a que lo faculta. ²The poor man does not envy the rich man for the opportunities for noble behavior which wealth facilitates, but rather for the degradations which wealth makes possible. #460 ²³Voluntad general´ es la ficción que le permite al demócrata pretender que para inclinarse ante una mayoría hay otra razón que el simple miedo. ²The ³general will´ is the fiction which allows the democrat to pretend that there is a reason, other than simple fear, to bow to a majority. #461 ²El desprecio a los ³formalismos´ es una patente de imbécil. ²Contempt for ³formalities´ is a guarantee of imbecility.

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#462 ²Llámase liberal el que no entiende que está sacrificando la libertad sino cuando es demasiado tarde para salvarla. ²A man is called a liberal if he does not understand that he is sacrificing liberty except when it is too late to save it. #463 ²Todo matrimonio de intelectual con el partido comunista acaba en adulterio. ²Every marriage between an intellectual and the Communist party ends in adultery. #464 ²El joven se enorgullece de su juventud como si no fuese privilegio que tuvo hasta el más bobo. ²A youth takes pride in his youth as if it were not a privilege enjoyed by even the most idiotic. p. 92 #465 ²Denigrar el progreso es demasiado fácil. Aspiro a la cátedra de metódico atraso. ²Denigrating progress is too easy. I aspire to the professorship in methodical regression. #466 ²Riqueza ociosa es la que sólo sirve para producir más riqueza. ²Idle wealth is wealth which only serves to produce more wealth. #467 ²Pocos hombres soportarían su vida si no se sintiesen víctimas de la suerte. Llamar injusticia la justicia es el más popular de los consuelos. ²Few men would put up with their lives if they did not feel like victims of chance. To call justice injustice is the most popular of consolations. #468 ²El que denuncia las limitaciones intelectuales del político olvida que les debe sus éxitos. ²The man who denounces a politician¶s intellectual limitations forgets that it is to them that he owes his successes. #469 ²Las estéticas indican al artista en qué sector del universo está la belleza que busca, pero no le garantizan que logrará capturarla. ²Aesthetics indicates to the artist in which region of the universe the beauty for which he is searching can be found, but it does not guarantee him that he will succeed in capturing it. #470 ²Lo vulgar no es lo que el vulgo hace, sino lo que le place. ²What is vulgar is not what the crowd does, but rather what pleases it. #471 ²¿Qué es la filosofía para el católico sino la manera como la inteligencia vive su fe? ²What is philosophy for the Catholic but the way intelligence lives its faith? 68

p. 93 #472 ²Mi fe llena mi soledad con su sordo murmullo de vida invisible. ²My faith fills my solitude with its hushed whisper of invisible life. #473 ²La sensualidad es la posibilidad permanente de rescatar al mundo del cautiverio de su insignificancia. ²Sensuality is the permanent possibility of rescuing the world from the captivity of its insignificance. #474 ²La razón es una mano que oprime nuestro pecho para aplacar el latir de nuestro corazón desordenado. ²Reason is a hand which presses down on our chest to ease the throbbing of our disordered heart. #475 ²La sonrisa del ser que amamos es el único remedio eficaz contra el tedio. ²The smile of the person we love is the only effective remedy for tedium. #476 ²El que se abandona a sus instintos envilece su rostro tan obviamente como su alma. ²Whoever abandons himself to his instincts degrades his face as obviously as he degrades his soul. #477 ²La disciplina no es tanto una necesidad social como una urgencia estética. ²Discipline is not so much a social necessity as an aesthetic obligation. #478 ²Ser aristócrata es no creer que todo depende de la voluntad. ²To be an aristocrat is to not believe that everything depends on the will. #479 ²Entre injusticia y desorden no es posible optar. Son sinónimos. ²It is not possible to choose between injustice and disorder. They are synonyms. p. 94 #480 ²La sociedad industrial es la expresión y el fruto de almas donde las virtudes destinadas a servir usurpan el puesto de las destinadas a mandar. ²Industrial society is the expression and fruit of souls in which virtues destined to serve usurp the place of virtues destined to command.

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#481 ²Sociedad totalitaria es el nombre vulgar de la especie social cuya denominación científica es sociedad industrial. El embrión actual permite prever la fiereza del animal adulto. ²Totalitarian society is the common name for the social species whose scientific name is industrial society. The embryo today allows us to foresee the adult animal¶s deformity. #482 ²No hablemos mal del nacionalismo. Sin la virulencia nacionalista ya regiría sobre Europa y el mundo un imperio técnico, racional, uniforme. Acreditemos al nacionalismo dos siglos, por lo menos, de espontaneidad espiritual, de libre expresión del alma nacional, de rica diversidad histórica. El nacionalismo fue el último espasmo del individuo ante la muerte gris que lo espera. ²Let us not speak ill of nationalism. Without the virulence of nationalism, Europe and the world would already be ruled by a technical, rational, uniform empire. Let us give credit to nationalism for two centuries, at least, of spiritual spontaneity, of free expression of the national soul, of rich historical diversity. Nationalism was the last spasm of the individual before the gray death awaiting it. #483 ²La verdad está en la historia, pero la historia no es la verdad. ²The truth is in history, but history is not the truth. #484 ²Para llamarse cultivado no basta que el individuo adorne su especialidad con los retazos de otras. La cultura no es un conjunto de objetos especiales sino una actitud específica del sujeto. ²In order to call himself cultivated, it is not enough for an individual to adorn his specialty with bits and pieces of other specialties. Culture is not a group of special objects but a subject¶s specific attitude. p. 95 #485 ²Para industrializar un país no basta expropiar al rico, hay que explotar al pobre. ²To industrialize a country, it is not enough to expropriate the rich man; it is necessary to exploit the poor man.

#593 ²Los individuos interesan menos al historiador moderno que sus circunstancias. Reflejo del actual trastrueque: el modo de vivir importa más que la calidad del que vive. ²Individuals interest the modern historian less than their circumstances. A reflection of the current confusion: the way of life matters more than the quality of the one who lives. #594 ²Verdadero aristócrata es el que tiene vida interior. Cualquiera que sea su origen, su rango, o su fortuna. ²The true aristocrat is the man who has an interior life. Whatever his origin, his rank, or his fortune. #595 ²Nada de lo que acontece es necesario, pero todo se vuelve necesario una vez acontecido. Todo tiene causa, pero toda causa tiene pluralidad virtual de efectos. ²Nothing that happens is necessary, but everything becomes necessary once it has happened. Everything has a cause, but every cause has a virtual multitude of effects. #596 ²Sólo el imbécil no se siente nunca copartidario de sus enemigos. ²Only the imbecile never feels like he is fighting on his enemies¶ side. p. 112 #597 ²El cristiano actual no se conduele de que los demás no estén de acuerdo con él, sino de no estar de acuerdo con los demás. ²The contemporary Christian is not sorry that nobody else agrees with him, but that he does not agree with everybody else. #598 ²Una sociedad justa carecería de interés. La discrepancia entre el individuo y el sitio que ocupa vuelve la historia interesante. ²A just society would be lacking in interest. The discrepancy between the individual and the position he occupies is what makes history interesting. #599 ²La vulgaridad consiste tanto en irrespetar lo que merece respeto como en respetar lo que no lo merece. ²Vulgarity consists as much in disrespecting what deserves respect as in respecting what does not deserve it.

#606 ²La historia del arte es historia de sus materiales, sus técnicas, sus temas, sus condiciones sociales, sus motivos psicológicos, o su problemática intelectual, pero nunca historia de la belleza. El valor no tiene historia. ²The history of art is the history of its materials, its techniques, its themes, its social conditions, its psychological motives, or its set of intellectual problems, but never the history of beauty. A value has no history. #607 ²Más que cristiano, quizá soy un pagano que cree en Cristo. ²Rather than a Christian, perhaps I am a pagan who believes in Christ. #608 ²En las ciencias sociales se acostumbra pesar, contar, y medir, para no tener que pensar. ²In the social sciences one generally weighs, counts, and measures, to avoid having to think. #609 ²La ³intuición´ es la percepción de lo invisible, así como la ³percepción´ es la intuición de lo visible. ²³Intuition´ is the perception of the invisible, just as ³perception´ is the intuition of the visible. p. 114 #610 ²En la sociedad igualitaria no caben ni los magnánimos ni los humildes, sólo hay campo para las virtudes cursis. ²In an egalitarian society neither the magnanimous nor the humble fit in; there is only room for pretentious virtues. #611 ²El hombre no es sino espectador de su impotencia. ²Man is nothing but the spectator of his impotence. #612 ²Toda satisfacción es una forma de olvido. ²All satisfaction is a form of forgetfulness. #613 ²La explicación de la experiencia religiosa no se encuentra en los manuales de psicología. Está en los dogmas de la Iglesia. ²The explanation for religious experience is not to be found in psychology manuals. It is in the Church¶s dogmas.

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#614 ²Los enemigos del mundo moderno, en el siglo XIX, podían confiar en el futuro. En este siglo sólo queda la nuda nostalgia del pasado. ²The enemies of the modern world, in the 19th century, could trust in the future. In this century there only remains bare nostalgia for the past. #615 ²Acostumbramos llamar perfeccionamiento moral el no darnos cuenta de que cambiamos de vicio. ²We are in the habit of calling moral improvement our failure to realize that we have switched vices. #616 ²El relevo de generaciones es el vehículo, pero no el motor de la historia. ²The succession of generations is the vehicle, but not the motor of history. #617 ²Los cálculos de los inteligentes suelen fallar porque olvidan al tonto, los de los tontos porque olvidan al inteligente. ²The calculations of intelligent men tend to fail because they forget the fool, those of fools because they forget the intelligent man. p. 115 #618 ²Todo individuo con ³ideales´ es un asesino potencial. ²Every individual with ³ideals´ is a potential murderer. #619 ²Como evidentemente la auténtica obra de arte es original, el iletrado se imagina que la obra original es necesariamente obra de arte. ²Since the authentic work of art is obviously original, the cultural illiterate imagines that the original work is necessarily a work of art. #620 ²La historia de estas repúblicas latinoamericanas debiera escribirse sin desdén pero con ironía. ²The history of these Latin American republics should be written without disdain but with irony. #621 ²El viejo adopta inútilmente opiniones de joven para hacer dudar de su vejez. ²In vain does the old man adopt the opinions of a young man to make others doubt his old age.

p. 125 #681 ²Basta, a veces, que una sociedad suprima una costumbre que supone absurda, para que una catástrofe repentina le demuestre su error. ²It is enough at times that a society suppress a custom it assumes is absurd, for a sudden catastrophe to show it its error. #682 ²El clero progresista vitupera la ³mentalidad de ghetto´ del actual cristiano viejo. Esos clérigos prefieren la actividad mercantil y bursátil del judío moderno al ghetto, donde floreció la fidelidad de Israel. ²The progressive clergy excoriate the ³ghetto mentality´ of the old Christian today. Those clergy prefer the commercial and financial activity of the modern Jew to the ghetto where Israel¶s faithfulness flourished. #683 ²Inteligencia sin prejuicios es sólo la que sabe cuáles tiene. ²The only intelligence without prejudices is one that knows which it has. #684 ²Solamente porque ordenó amar a los hombres, el clero moderno se resigna a creer en la divinidad de Jesús; cuando, en verdad, es sólo porque creemos en la divinidad de Cristo que nos resignamos a amarlos. ²Only because He commanded us to love men do the modern clergy resign themselves to believing in the divinity of Jesus; when, in truth, it is only because we believe in the divinity of Jesus that we resign ourselves to loving men. #685 ²El espectáculo de una vanidad herida es grotesco cuando la vanidad es ajena y repugnante cuando es nuestra. ²The spectacle of injured vanity is grotesque when the vanity is another¶s and repugnant when it is ours. #686 ²Nadie que se conozca puede absolverse a sí mismo. ²Nobody who knows himself can absolve himself. #687 ²Las filosofías que el público conoce y estima son sartas de vulgaridades atribuidas a nombres ilustres. ²The philosophies which the public knows and values are strings of vulgarities attributed to illustrious names.

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p. 126 #688 ²La libertad, para el demócrata, no consiste en poder decir todo lo que piensa, sino en no tener que pensar todo lo que dice. ²Liberty, for the democrat, consists not in being able to say everything he thinks, but in not having to think about everything he says. #689 ²Meditar es dialogar con algún muerto. ²To meditate is to converse with someone who is dead. #690 ²Cuando un lugar común nos impresiona creemos tener una idea propia. ²When a commonplace impresses us, we believe we have an idea of our own. #691 ²En este siglo de amenazas y de amagos nada más frívolo que ocuparse de cosas serias. ²In this century of threats and menaces there is nothing more frivolous than to occupy oneself with serious matters. #692 ²En el seno de la Iglesia actual, son ³integristas´ los que no han entendido que el cristianismo necesita una teología nueva y ³progresistas´ los que no han entendido que la nueva teología debe ser cristiana. ²In the bosom of the Church today, ³integralists´ are those who do not understand that Christianity needs a new theology, and ³progressives´ are those who do not understand that the new theology must be Christian. #693 ²Al creerme dueño de una verdad no me interesa el argumento que la confirma, sino el que la refuta. ²Once I believe I have mastered a truth, the argument which interests me is not the one which confirms it but the one which refutes it. #694 ²El anonimato de la ciudad moderna es tan intolerable como la familiaridad de las costumbres actuales. La vida debe parecerse a un salón de gente bien educada, donde todos se conocen pero donde nadie se abraza. ²The anonymity of the modern city is as intolerable as the familiarity of modern customs. Life should resemble a salon of people with good manners, where all know each other but where none hug each other.

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p. 127 #695 ²El gusto de las masas no se caracteriza por su antipatía a lo excelente, sino por la pasividad con que igualmente gozan de lo bueno, lo mediocre, y lo malo. Las masas no tienen mal gusto. Simplemente no tienen gusto. ²The taste of the masses is characterized not by their antipathy to the excellent, but by the passivity with which they enjoy equally the good, the mediocre, and the bad. The masses do not have bad taste. They simply do not have taste. #696 ²El admirador virtual es el corruptor de la prosa. ²The virtual admirer is what corrupts prose. #697 ²No son raros los historiadores franceses para quienes la historia del mundo es un episodio de la historia de Francia. ²It is not rare to find French historians for whom the history of the world is an episode in the history of France. #698 ²El cristiano moderno no pide que Dios lo perdone, sino que admita que el pecado no existe. ²The modern Christian does not ask God to forgive him, but to admit that sin does not exist. #699 ²Para poder aliarse con el comunista, el católico de izquierda sostiene que el marxismo meramente critica las acomodaciones burguesas del cristianismo, cuando es su esencia lo que condena. ²In order to be able to ally himself with the Communist, the leftist Catholic asserts that Marxism merely criticizes Christianity¶s compromises with the bourgeoisie, when it is Christianity¶s essence which Marxism condemns. #700 ²Muchos aman al hombre sólo para olvidar a Dios con la conciencia tranquila. ²Many people love man only so they can forget God with an easy conscience. p. 128 #701 ²La Iglesia post-conciliar pretende atraer hacia el ³redil,´ traduciendo en el lenguaje insípido de la cancillería vaticana los lugares comunes del periodismo contemporáneo. ²The post-conciliar Church seeks to draw people into the ³fold´ by translating the commonplaces of contemporary journalism into the insipid jargon of the Vatican chancery.

#804 ²Clérigos y periodistas han embadurnado de tanto sentimentalismo el vocablo ³amor´ que su solo eco hiede. ²Clergymen and journalists have smeared the term ³love´ with so much sentimentality that even its echo stinks. p. 145 #805 ²El hombre, hasta ayer, no merecía que lo llamasen animal racional. La definición fue inexacta mientras inventaba, de preferencia actitudes religiosas y comportamientos éticos, tareas estéticas y meditaciones filosóficas. Hoy, en cambio, el hombre se limita a ser animal racional, es decir: inventor de recetas prácticas al servicio de su animalidad. ²Man, until yesterday, did not deserve to be called a rational animal. The definition was inexact as long as he invented, according to his preference, religious attitudes and ethical behavior, aesthetic tasks and philosophical meditations. Today, on the other hand, man limits himself to being a rational animal, that is to say: an inventor of practical rules at the service of his animality. #806 ²Educar no consiste en colaborar al libre desarrollo del individuo, sino en apelar a lo que todos tienen de decente contra lo que todos tienen de perverso. ²Education consists not in cooperating in the free development of the individual, but in appealing to the decency we all possess against the perversity we all possess. #807 ²Los verdaderos problemas no tienen solución sino historia. ²True problems do not have a solution but a history. #808 ²Quienes piden que la Iglesia se adapte al pensamiento moderno, acostumbran confundir la urgencia de respetar ciertas reglas metodológicas con la obligación de adoptar un repertorio de postulados imbéciles. ²Those who ask the Church to adapt herself to modern thinking are in the habit of confusing the urgent need to respect certain methodological rules with the obligation to adopt a repertory of idiotic postulates. #809 ²El máximo pecado del historiador está en ver una época cualquiera sólo como anticipación, preparación o causa, de otra. ²The historian¶s greatest sin lies in viewing any age whatsoever as only an anticipation of, preparation for, or cause of another.

#816 ²La crítica ³estéril´ logra a veces esas conversiones del alma que modifican substancialmente los problemas. La crítica ³constructiva´ sólo multiplica catástrofes. ²Negative criticism sometimes achieves those conversions of the soul which significantly modify the problems. ³Constructive´ criticism only multiplies catastrophes. #817 ²Para aligerar la nave cristiana, que zozobra en aguas modernas, la teología liberal se desembarazó ayer de la divinidad de Cristo, la teología radical se desembaraza hoy de la existencia de Dios. ²To lighten the load of the Christian ship foundering in modern waters, liberal theology yesterday jettisoned the divinity of Christ, and radical theology today jettisons the existence of God. #818 ²El intelectual de izquierda no ataca con intrepidez y arrogancia sino las ideas que cree muertas. ²The leftist intellectual does not attack anything with fearlessness and arrogance except ideas he believes to be dead. #819 ²Evidentemente en muchos casos inventamos nuestras ideas, pero no somos los primeros, ni los únicos, en inventarlas. ²Obviously, in many cases we come up with our ideas, but we are not the first, nor the only ones, to come up with them. #820 ²Cualquiera tiene derecho a ser estúpido, pero no a exigir que veneremos sus estupideces. ²Anybody has the right to be stupid, but not to demand that we revere his stupidity. #821 ²El tráfago moderno no dificulta creer en Dios, pero imposibilita sentirlo. ²Modern drudgery does not make it more difficult to believe in God, but it does make it impossible to feel Him. p. 151 #822 ²La inteligencia se robustece con los lugares comunes eternos. Y se debilita con los de su tiempo y su sitio. ²Intelligence is strengthened by the eternal commonplaces. And it is weakened by those of its time and place.

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#823 ²De nada sirve al mediocre emigrar a donde moran los grandes. Todos llevamos nuestra mediocridad a cuestas. ²It does not help the mediocre man at all to emigrate to where great men reside. We all carry our mediocrity with us wherever we go. #824 ²Historia es lo que reconstruye una imaginación capaz de pensar conciencias ajenas. Lo demás es política. ²History is what is reconstructed by an imagination capable of thinking the consciousness of others. The rest is politics. #825 ²La distancia entre jóvenes y viejos es hoy igual a la de siempre. Hoy se habla del ³abismo´ entre generaciones, porque el adulto actual se niega a envejecer y el joven, con el irrespeto debido, le asegura que envejeció. ²The distance between young and old is the same today as it has always been. Today people speak of the generation ³gap´ because today¶s adult refuses to become old and the youth, with all due disrespect, assures him that he is old. #826 ²Cupo a este siglo el privilegio de inventar el pedantismo de la obscenidad. ²It fell to this century to have the privilege of inventing the pedantry of obscenity. #827 ²A medida que suben las aguas de este siglo, los sentimientos delicados y nobles, los gustos voluptuosos y finos, las ideas discretas y profundas, se refugian en unas pocas almas señeras, como los sobrevivientes del diluvio sobre algunos picos silenciosos. ²As the waters of this century rise, delicate and noble sentiments, sensuous and fine tastes, discreet and profound ideas take refuge in a few solitary souls, like the survivors of the flood on some silent mountain peaks. p. 152 #828 ²Gastamos una vida en comprender lo que un extraño comprende de un vistazo: que somos tan insignificantes como los demás. ²We spend a life trying to understand what a stranger understands at a glance: that we are just as insignificant as the rest. #829 ²A fuerza de adoptarse a la ³mentalidad moderna,´ el cristianismo se volvió una doctrina que no es difícil acatar, ni es interesante hacerlo. ²By embracing the ³modern mentality,´ Christianity became a doctrine which it is not easy to respect, nor interesting to do so.

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#830 ²Las revoluciones latinoamericanas nunca han pretendido más que entregar el poder a algún Directoire. ²Latin American revolutions have never sought anything more than to hand power over to some Directory. #831 ²Aquellos cuya gratitud por el beneficio recibido se convierte en devoción a la persona que lo otorga, en lugar de degenerar en el odio acostumbrado que todo benefactor despierta, son aristócratas. Aun cuando caminen en harapos. ²Those whose gratitude for receiving a benefit is transformed into devotion to the person who grants it, instead of degenerating into the usual hatred aroused by all benefactors, are aristocrats. Even if they walk around in rags. p. 153 #832 ²El fervor del culto que el demócrata rinde a la humanidad sólo es comparable a la frialdad con que irrespeta al individuo. El reaccionario desdeña al hombre, sin encontrar individuo que desprecie. ²The fervor of the homage which the democrat renders to humanity is comparable only to the coldness with which he disrespects the individual. The reactionary disdains man, without meeting an individual he scorns. #833 ²El verdadero crimen del colonialismo fue la conversión en arrabales de Occidente de los grandes pueblos asiáticos. ²Colonialism¶s true crime was to turn the great Asiatic peoples into the outskirts of the West. #834 ²Lo personal en el artista no es la persona, sino su visión del mundo. ²What is personal in the artist is not the person, but his vision of the world. #835 ²Ser civilizado es poder criticar aquello en que creemos sin dejar de creer en ello. ²To be civilized is to be able to criticize what we believe in without ceasing to believe in it. #836 ²Las familias suelen ser células purulentas de estupidez y desdicha, porque una necesidad irónica exige que el gobierno de tan elementales estructuras requiera tanta inteligencia, astucia, diplomacia, como el de un estado. ²Families are often purulent cells of stupidity and unhappiness, because an ironic necessity demands that the governance of such elemental structures require as much intelligence, astuteness, and diplomacy as that of a state.

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p. 154 #837 ²Las empresas políticas mejor concertadas, así como las más sabias medidas económicas, sólo son albures donde se acierta por chiripa. El estadista engreído con su acierto pretende que compró a sabiendas el billete ganador. ²The best organized political enterprises, just like the wisest economic measures, are only games of chance where one wins by a stroke of luck. The statist, made conceited by his success, asserts that he knowingly bought the winning lottery ticket. #838 ²Quien mira sin admirar ni odiar, no ha visto. ²Whoever looks without admiration or hatred has not seen. #839 ²El historiador no se instala en el pasado con el propósito de entender mejor el presente. Lo que fuimos no le interesa para indagar qué somos. Lo que somos le interesa para averiguar qué fuimos. El pasado no es la meta aparente del historiador, sino su meta real. ²The historian does not establish himself in the past with the intention of better understanding the present. What we were is not pertinent to his inquiry into what we are. What we are is not pertinent to his investigation of what we were. The past is not the historian¶s apparent goal, but his real goal. #840 ²La desintegración creciente de la persona se mide comparando la expresión ³aventura amorosa,´ que se estilaba en el XVIII, con la expresión ³experiencia sexual,´ que usa el siglo XX. ²The increasing disintegration of the person can be measured by comparing the expression ³amorous adventure,´ which was in style in the 18th century, with the expression ³sexual experience,´ which is used in the 20th century. #841 ²Con quien ignora determinados libros no hay discusión posible. ²With somebody who is ignorant of certain books no discussion is possible. #842 ²No existe individuo que, al medirse desprevenidamente a sí mismo, no se descubra inferior a muchos, superior a pocos, igual a ninguno. ²There is no individual who, upon evaluating himself without previous preparation, does not find that he is inferior to many, superior to few, equal to none.

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p. 155 #843 ²La vida religiosa comienza cuando descubrimos que Dios no es postulado de la ética, sino la única aventura en que vale la pena arriesgarnos. ²The religious life begins when we discover that God is not a postulate of ethics, but the only adventure in which it is worth the trouble to risk ourselves. #844 ²Llámase socialista la economía que monta laboriosamente los mecanismos espontáneos del capitalismo. ²An economy is called socialist if it needs to make great efforts to set up the spontaneous mechanisms of capitalism. #845 ²Con el objeto de impedir peligrosas concentraciones de poder económico en manos de pocas sociedades anónimas, el socialismo propone que la totalidad del poder económico se confíe a una sociedad anónima señera llamada estado. ²With the object of preventing dangerous concentrations of economic power in the hands of a few anonymous associations, socialism proposes that the totality of economic power be entrusted in a lone anonymous association called the state. #846 ²El adversario de los principios modernos no tiene aliados más leales que las consecuencias de esos principios. ²The adversary of modern principles has no allies more loyal than the consequences of those principles. #847 ²Sería más fácil resolver los problemas modernos, si, por ejemplo, cupiera sostener utópicamente que sólo la avidez mercantil del fabricante multiplica los artículos plásticos, y no la admiración idiota de los presuntos compradores. ²It would be easier to resolve modern problems, if, for example, it were possible to sustain the Utopian fantasy that what causes the multiplication of plastic objects is only the manufacturer¶s commercial greed, and not the idiotic admiration of the presumed buyers. #848 ²El hombre moderno no expulsa a Dios, para asumir la responsabilidad del mundo. Sino para no tener que asumirla. ²Modern man does not expel God so that he can assume responsibility for the world. But rather so that he does not to have to assume it.

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p. 156 #849 ²En este aburguesamiento universal, añoro menos la aristocracia muerta que el pueblo desaparecido. ²With the whole world becoming more bourgeois, I miss the dead aristocracy less than I miss the vanished people. #850 ²La inteligencia no consiste en el manejo de ideas inteligencias, sino en el manejo inteligente de cualquier idea. ²Intelligence consists not in handling intelligent ideas, but in handling any idea intelligently. #851 ²La inepcia y la sandez de la palabrería episcopal y pontificia nos turbarían, si nosotros, cristianos viejos, no hubiésemos aprendido, felizmente, desde pequeños, a dormir durante el sermón. ²The ineptitude and folly of the bishops¶ and popes¶ chatter would disturb us, if we old Christians had not fortunately learned as little children to sleep during the sermon. #852 ²Cuando oímos los acordes finales de un himno nacional, sabemos con certeza que alguien acaba de decir tonterías. ²When we hear the final chords of a national anthem, we know with certainty that someone has just said something stupid. #853 ²Dios es el término con que notificamos al universo que no es todo. ²God is the term with which we notify the universe that it is not everything. #854 ²El técnico se cree un ser superior, porque sabe lo que, por definición, cualquiera puede aprender. ²The expert believes he is a superior being, because he knows what, by definition, anybody can learn. #855 ²Sus obras envanecen al hombre, porque olvida que si lo que hace es suyo, no es suyo el tener la capacidad de hacerlo. ²Man is made vain by his works, because he forgets that, though what he makes belongs to him, it does not belong to him to have the capacity to make it.

#884 ²Periodistas y políticos no saben distinguir entre el desarrollo de una idea y la expansión de una frase. ²Journalists and politicians do not know how to distinguish between the development of an idea and the lengthening of a sentence. #885 ²Los que le quitan al hombre sus cadenas liberan sólo a un animal. ²Those who remove man¶s chains free only an animal. p. 162 #886 ²La historia se reduciría a un inventario tipológico, si cada una de sus instancias típicas no fuese inherente a una persona. ²History would be reduced to an inventory of types if each one of its typical instances did not inhere in a person. #887 ²Tanto como el hecho que humilla nuestro orgullo, me regocija el gesto noble que disipa la aprensión de nuestra radical vileza. ²Just as much as by the fact which humbles our pride, I am delighted by the noble gesture which dispels the fear of our radical baseness. #888 ²Nunca podemos contar con el que no se mira a sí mismo con mirada de entomólogo. ²We can never count on a man who does not look upon himself with the look of an entomologist. #889 ²El mundo le parece menos ajeno al que actúa que su propia alma al que observa. ²The world appears less alien to someone who acts than one¶s own soul appears to someone who observes. #890 ²El Progreso se reduce finalmente a robarle al hombre lo que lo ennoblece, para poder venderle barato lo que le envilece. ²Progress in the end comes down to stealing from man what ennobles him, in order to sell to him at a cheap price what degrades him. #891 ²Si los europeos renuncian a sus particularismos para procrear al ³buen europeo,´ tememos que sólo engendren solo otro norteamericano. ²If the Europeans renounce their particularities in order to generate the ³good European,´ we fear they will only beget another American.

p. 164 #900 ²La primera revolución estalló cuando se le ocurrió a algún tonto que el derecho se podía inventar. ²The first revolution broke out when it occurred to some fool that law could be invented. #901 ²Período histórico es el lapso durante el cual predomina una determinada definición de lo legítimo. Revolución es el tránsito de una definición a otra. ²An historical period is the period of time during which a certain definition of the legitimate prevails. Revolution is the transition from one definition to another. #902 ²Siendo las cosas que no ennoblece la vejez tan raras como los hombres que la vejez ennoblece, el mundo moderno destruye las cosas viejas y prolongan la senectud del hombre. ²As those things which age does not ennoble are as rare as men whom age does ennoble, the modern world destroys old things and prolongs man¶s senility. #903 ²La lectura del periódico envilece al que no embrutece. ²Reading the newspaper degrades whomever it does not make into a brute. #904 ²Uno a uno, tal vez los hombres sean nuestros prójimos, pero amontonados seguramente no lo son. ²Perhaps individually men are our neighbors, but massed together they are surely not. #905 ²La democracia no confía el poder a quien no le hace el homenaje de sacrificarle la conciencia y el gusto. ²Democracy does not entrust power to anyone who does not pay it the homage of sacrificing to it his conscience and taste. p. 165 #906 ²Tanta es la fe del marxista en Marx que usualmente abstiene de leerlo. ²So great is the Marxist¶s faith in Marx that he usually refrains from reading him. #907 ²La fe en Dios no resuelve problemas, pero los vuelve irrisorios. La serenidad del creyente no es presunción de ciencia, sino plenitud de confianza. ²Faith in God does not solve problems, but makes them laughable. The serenity of the believer is not a presumption of knowledge, but a fullness of confidence.

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#908 ²El castigo del que se busca es que se encuentra. ²The punishment of the man who searches for himself is that he finds himself. #909 ²Saber cuáles son las reformas que el mundo necesita es el único síntoma inequívoco de estupidez. ²Knowing which reforms the world needs is the only unequivocal symptom of stupidity. #910 ²Aun cuando la desigualdad no fuera imborrable, deberíamos preferirla a la igualdad por amor a la policromía. ²Even if inequality could be wiped out, we should prefer it to equality out of love for color. #911 ²Gran historiador no es tanto el que advierte defectos en lo que admira como el que admite virtudes en lo que detesta. ²A great historian is not so much one who notices defects in what he admires as one who acknowledges virtues in what he detests. p. 166 #912 ²Los viejos despotismos se limitaban a encerrar al hombre en la vida privada, los del nuevo cuño prefieren que no tenga sino vida pública. Para domesticar al hombre basta politizar todos sus gestos. ²The old despotisms limited themselves to locking man up in his private life; those of the new stamp prefer that he have nothing but a public life. To domesticate man all one has to do is politicize all his gestures. #913 ²El terror es el régimen natural de toda sociedad sin rastros de feudalismo. ²Terror is the natural regime for every society without traces of feudalism. #914 ²Sabiendo que no puede ganar, el reaccionario no tiene ganas de mentir. ²Though he knows he cannot win, the reactionary has no desire to lie. #915 ²Ojalá resucitaran los ³filósofos´ del XVIII, con su ingenio, su sarcasmo, su osadía, para que minaran, desmantelaran, demolieran, los ³prejuicios´ de este siglo. Los prejuicios que nos legaron ellos. ²Would that the philosophes of the 18th century would rise from the dead with their wit, their sarcasm, their audacity, so that they would undermine, dismantle, demolish the ³prejudices´ of this century. The prejudices they bequeathed to us.

#932 ²Nada más frecuente que sentirnos dueños de varias ideas, porque sólo atrapamos expresiones inadecuadas de la misma. ²Nothing happens more frequently than that we feel we possess several ideas, because we only seize upon inadequate expressions of the same one. #933 ²El alma de los jóvenes aburriría menos, sino la exhibieran menos. ²The souls of youths would not be so boring if they did not exhibit them so freely. #934 ²El clero progresista no decepciona nunca al aficionado a lo ridículo. ²The progressive clergy never disappoint an aficionado of the ridiculous. #935 ²Es más fácil perdonarle el progreso al progresista que su fe. ²It is easier to forgive the progressive for progress than for his faith. #936 ²La historia del cristianismo revela al cristiano qué presencia Cristo ha querido tener en la historia. Pretender borrar esa historia, para retornar al solo Cristo evangélico, no es gesto de devoción sino de orgullo. ²The history of Christianity reveals to the Christian what kind of presence Christ wanted to have in history. To seek to erase that history, to return to the lone Christ of the gospels, is not a gesture of devotion but of pride. p. 170 #943 ²Revelación es el valor que le sobreviene de pronto a un hecho psicológico. ²Revelation is the value that suddenly supervenes on a psychological event. #937 ²Un gesto, un gesto solo, basta a veces para justificar la existencia del mundo. ²A gesture, just one gesture, is enough at times to justify the existence of the world. #938 ²Cuando la razón levanta el vuelo para escapar a la historia, no es en lo absoluto donde se posa, sino en la moda del día. ²When reason takes flight to escape history, it is not in the absolute where it alights, but in the fashion of the day.

p. 174 #964 ²La creencia en la solubilidad fundamental de los problemas es característica propia al mundo moderno. Que todo antagonismo de principios es simple equívoco, que habrá aspirina para toda cefalalgia. ²The belief in the fundamental solubility of problems is a characteristic peculiar to the modern world. That all conflict between principles is simply a matter of equivocation, that there will be aspirin for every headache. #965 ²Sentirnos capaces de leer textos literarios con imparcialidad de profesor es confesar que la literatura dejó de gustarnos. ²To feel capable of reading literary texts with the impartiality of a professor is to confess that literature has ceased to be pleasurable for us. #966 ²Mientras más radicalmente comparta los prejuicios de su tiempo, más fácil le es al historiador creerse dueño de criterios objetivos para juzgar la historia. La moda es el único absoluto que nadie suele disputar. ²The more fundamentally he shares the prejudices of his time, the easier it is for the historian to believe he possesses objective criteria by which to judge history. Fashion is the only absolute which nobody disputes. #967 ²El acto de despojar de sus bienes a un individuo se llama robo, cuando otro individuo lo despoja. Y justicia social, cuando una colectividad entera lo roba. ²The act of despoiling an individual of his goods is called robbery, when another individual does the despoiling. And social justice, when an entire collective entity robs him. #968 ²Los biógrafos del escritor suelen eliminar a la persona, para ocuparse de su vida insignificante. ²A writer¶s biographers tend to eliminate the person in order to occupy themselves with his insignificant life. #969 ²A finales del siglo pasado sólo hubo un ³arte sin estilo,´ en la segunda mitad de éste sólo hay un estilo sin arte. ²At the end of the last century there was only an ³art without style´; in the second half of this century there is only a style without art.

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p. 175 #970 ²Las extravagancias del arte moderno están enseñándonos a apreciar debidamente las insipideces del arte clásico. ²The extravagance of modern art is teaching us to appreciate properly the blandness of classic art. #971 ²Las burocracias no suceden casualmente a las revoluciones. Las revoluciones son los partos sangrientos de las burocracias. ²Bureaucracies do not succeed revolutions by coincidence. Revolutions are the bloody births of bureaucracies. #972 ²Las más nobles cosas de la tierra quizá no existan, sino en las palabras que las evocan. Pero basta que allí estén, para que sean. ²The noblest things on earth may not exist except in the words that evoke them. But it is enough that they be there for them to be. #973 ²Las insolencias del adolescente no son más que patadas del asno que se acomoda al establo. Mientras que la insolencia del adulto que arroja bruscamente de sus hombros los años de paciencia que lo encorvan es un espectáculo admirable. ²The adolescent¶s insolence is nothing more than the bucking of an ass getting used to the stable. Whereas the insolence of the adult who brusquely casts off his shoulders the years of patience doubling him over is a marvelous spectacle. #974 ²Obligaciones o placeres, objetos o personas: basta moverlos del sitio subordinado que a cada cual corresponde, para convertirlos en nada. ²Duties or pleasures, objects or persons: it suffices to move them from the subordinate place corresponding to each one to turn them into nothing. #975 ²Todo inconforme sabe, en el fondo del alma, que el sitio que su vanidad rechaza es el sitio mismo que su naturaleza le fijó. ²Every non-conformist knows, in the depths of his soul, that the place his vanity rejects is the exact same place his nature has assigned him. p. 176 #976 ²Hay menos ambiciosos en el mundo que individuos que hoy se creen obligados moralmente a serlo. ²There are fewer ambitious individuals in the world today than individuals who believe they are morally obliged to be ambitious. 137

#977 ²A lo más que puede aspirar el hombre que se conoce es a ser lo menos repugnante posible. ²The most to which a man who knows himself can aspire is to be the least repugnant possible. #978 ²Postulado básico de la democracia: la ley es la conciencia del ciudadano. ²A basic postulate of democracy: the law is the citizen¶s conscience. #979 ²La tolerancia consiste en una firme decisión de permitir que insulten todo lo que pretendemos querer y respetar, siempre que no amenacen nuestra comodidades materiales. El hombre moderno, liberal, demócrata, progresista, siempre que no le pisen los callos, tolera que le empuerquen el alma. ²Tolerance consists of a firm decision to allow them to insult everything we seek to love and respect, as long as they do not threaten our material comforts. Modern, liberal, democratic, progressive man, as long as they do not step on his calluses, will let them degrade his soul. #980 ²Decir que la libertad consiste en cosa distinta de hacer lo que queremos es mentira. Que convenga, por otra parte, limitar la libertad es cosa evidente. Pero el engaño comienza cuando pretenden identificarla con las limitaciones que le imponen. ²To say that freedom consists of something other than doing what we want is a lie. That it is proper, on the other hand, to limit freedom is an obvious fact. But deceit begins when they seek to identify freedom with the limitations they impose on it. p. 177 #981 ²La historia moderna se reduce, en última instancia, a la derrota de la burguesía y a la victoria de las ideas burguesas. ²Modern history, ultimately, comes down to the defeat of the bourgeoisie and the victory of bourgeois ideas. #982 ²El predicador del reino de Dios cuando no es Cristo el que predica, acaba predicando el reino del hombre. ²The preacher of the kingdom of God, when it is not Christ who preaches, ends up preaching the kingdom of man. #983 ²Cuando despierta en nosotros el anhelo de otros lugares, de otros siglos, no es realmente en tal o cual tiempo, en tal o cual país, donde deseamos vivir, sino en las frases mismas del escritor que supo hablarnos de ese país o de ese tiempo. ²When the desire for other places, other centuries, awakens in us, it is not really in this or that time, in this or that country, where we desire to live, but in the very phrases of the writer who knew how to speak to us of that country or that time. 138

#1,007 ²La retórica no gana sola las batallas, pero nadie gana batallas sin ella. ²Rhetoric does not win battles by itself, but no one wins battles without it. #1,008 ²El hombre asegura que la vida lo envilece, para esconder que meramente lo revela. ²Man assures himself that life vilifies him in order to hide the fact that it merely reveals him. #1,009 ²El mundo sería aún más tedioso, si fuese tan fácil actuar como soñar. ²The world would be even more tedious if it were as easy to act as to dream. #1,010 ²No es imposible que en los batallones clericales al servicio del hombre todavía se infiltren algunos quintacolumnistas de Dios. ²It is not impossible that the battalions of clerics at the service of man have been infiltrated by a few fifth-columnists of God. #1,011 ²La burocracia no asusta porque paralice, sino porque funciona. ²Bureaucracy is not frightening because it paralyzes, but because it functions. #1,012 ²Un flujo constante de noticias invade hoy la existencia, destruyendo el silencio y la paz de las vidas humildes, sin abolir su tedio. ²A constant flow of news invades life today, destroying the silence and peace of humble lives, without abolishing their tedium. p. 182 #1,013 ²La percepción de la realidad, hoy, perece aplastada entre el trabajo moderno y las diversiones modernas. ²Perception of reality, today, dies crushed between modern work and modern entertainment. #1,014 ²Hallarse a merced de los caprichos populares, gracias al sufragio universal, es lo que el liberalismo llama garantía de la libertad. ²To find oneself at the mercy of the people¶s whims, thanks to universal suffrage, is what liberalism calls the guarantee of freedom. #1,015 ²La historia, si la seguimos con ojos de partidario, en lugar de observarla con mirada de curioso, nos mece tontamente entre la nostalgia y la ira. ²History, if we follow it with the eyes of a partisan, rather than observe it with mere curiosity, makes us swing foolishly back and forth between nostalgia and anger.

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#1,016 ²El incorregible error político del hombre de buena voluntad es presuponer cándidamente que en todo momento cabe hacer lo que toca. Aquí, donde lo necesario suele ser lo imposible. ²The incorrigible political error of the man of good will is to presuppose naively that at every moment it is possible to do what must be done. Here, where what is necessary is often impossible. #1,017 ²La sociedad moderna se envilece tan aprisa que cada nueva mañana contemplamos con nostalgia al adversario de ayer. Los marxistas ya comienzan a parecernos los últimos aristócratas de Occidente. ²Modern society so quickly becomes degraded that each new morning we contemplate with nostalgia yesterday¶s adversary. The Marxists are already starting to look like the West¶s last aristocrats. #1,018 ²Cuando las revoluciones económicas y sociales no son simples pretextos ideológicos de crisis religiosas, después de unos años de desorden todo sigue como antes. ²When economic and social revolutions are not simply ideological pretexts for religious crises, after a few years of disorder everything continues as before. p. 183 #1,019 ²Las verdaderas revoluciones no se inician con su estallido público, sino terminan con él. ²True revolutions do not begin with their public outbreak, but rather end with it. #1,020 ²El mejor paliativo de la angustia es la convicción de que Dios tiene sentido del humor. ²The best palliative for anguish is the conviction that God has a sense of humor. #1,021 ²La demagogia deja pronto de ser instrumento de la ideología democrática, para convertirse en ideología de la democracia. ²Demagogy soon ceases to be an instrument of the democratic ideology in order to become the ideology of democracy. #1,022 ²No apelar a Dios, sino a su justicia, nos lleva fatalmente a emplazarlo ante el tribunal de nuestros prejuicios. ²To appeal not to God, but to His justice, fatally leads us to place Him before the tribunal of our prejudices. #1,023 ²La humanidad no necesita al cristianismo para construir el futuro, sino para poder afrontarlo. ²Mankind does not need Christianity so it can construct the future, but so it can confront it. 143

#1,024 ²Inútil, como una revolución. ²Useless, like a revolution. #1,025 ²Los valores, como el alma, nacen en el tiempo, pero no le pertenecen. ²Values, like the soul, are born in time, but do not belong to it. #1,026 ²La sociedad no se civiliza bajo el impulso de prédicas sonoras, sino bajo la acción catalítica de gestos discretos. ²Society does not become civilized through the stimulus of sonorous sermons, but through the catalytic action of discreet gestures. p. 184 #1,027 ²Para ser revolucionario se requiere ser algo bobo, para ser conservador algo cínico. ²To be a revolutionary one must be a little daft; to be a conservative, a little cynical. #1,028 ²La riqueza facilita la vida, la pobreza la retórica. ²Wealth makes life easier; poverty, rhetoric. #1,029 ²Jesucristo no lograría hoy que lo escucharan, predicando como el hijo de Dios, sino como hijo de carpintero. ²Jesus Christ would not attract listeners today by preaching as the Son of God, but as the son of a carpenter. #1,030 ²Para ser historiador se requiere un raro talento. Para hacer historia basta un poco de impudicia. ²To be an historian requires a rare talent. To make history all that is needed is a little shamelessness. #1,031 ²Enseñar exime de la obligación de aprender. ²Teaching exempts one from the obligation to learn. #1,032 ²Las sociedades igualitarias estrangulan la imaginación, para ni siquiera satisfacer la envidia. ²Egalitarian societies strangle the imagination without even satisfying envy.

#1,042 ²Sostener que ³todas las ideas son respetables´ no es más que una inepcia pomposa. Sin embargo, no hay opinión que el apoyo de un número suficiente de imbéciles no obligue a aguantar. No disfracemos nuestra impotencia en tolerancia. ²To maintain that ³all ideas are respectable´ is nothing but pompous nonsense. Nevertheless, there is no opinion that the support of a sufficient number of imbeciles does not oblige one to put up with. Let us not disguise our impotence as tolerance. p. 186 #1,043 ²La inteligencia no consiste en encontrar soluciones, sino en no perder de vista los problemas. ²Intelligence consists not in finding solutions, but in not losing sight of the problems. #1,044 ²No trato de envenenar las fuentes. Sino de mostrar que están envenenadas. ²I am not trying to poison the wells. But to show that they are poisoned. #1,045 ²Nada más peligroso para la fe que frecuentar a los creyentes. El incrédulo restaura nuestra fe. ²Nothing is more dangerous for faith than to frequent the company of believers. The unbeliever restores our faith. #1,046 ²Los revolucionarios no destruyen, a la postre, sino lo que hacía tolerable las sociedades contra las cuales se rebelan. ²Revolutionaries do not destroy anything, in the end, except what made the societies against which they rebel tolerable. #1,047 ²Cuando el filósofo renuncia a guiar, el periodista se encarga de hacerlo. ²When the philosopher renounces leadership, the journalist puts himself in charge. #1,048 ²Los problemas del país ³sub-desarrollado´ son el pretexto favorito del escapismo izquierdista. Carente de mercancía nueva para ofrecer en el mercado europeo, el intelectual de izquierda vende en el tercer mundo sus saldos desteñidos. ²The problems of an ³underdeveloped´ country are the favorite pretext for leftist escapism. Lacking new merchandise to offer to the European market, the leftist intellectual peddles his faded wares in the third world.

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p. 187 #1,049 ²El ateo es respetable mientras no enseña que la dignidad del hombre es el fundamento de la ética y el amor a la humanidad la verdadera religión. ²An atheist is respectable as long as he does not teach that the dignity of man is the basis of ethics and that love for humanity is the true religion. #1,050 ²La naturaleza acabó de morir en este siglo. Tan sólo en el arte de siglos pretéritos descubrimos, asombrados, que la naturaleza no es simple experimento de física explotado por organismos diligentes. ²Nature just died in this century. Only in the art of past centuries do we discover, to our astonishment, that nature is not a simple physics experiment exploited by diligent organisms. #1,051 ²Una existencia colmada es aquella que entrega al sepulcro, después de largos años, un adolescente que la vida no envileció. ²A fulfilled life is one which delivers to the grave, after long years, an adolescent whom life did not corrupt. #1,052 ²La experiencia del hombre que ³ha vivido mucho´ suele reducirse a unas anécdotas triviales con que adorna una imbecilidad incurable. ²The experience of a man who ³has lived a long life´ can usually be reduced to a few trivial anecdotes with which he decorates an incurable stupidity. #1,053 ²Temblemos si no sentimos, en este abyecto mundo moderno, que el prójimo, cada día, es menos nuestro semejante. ²Let us tremble if we do not sense, in this abject modern world, that our neighbor is each day less our peer. #1,054 ²Observar la vida es demasiado interesante para perder el tiempo viviéndola. ²Observing life is too interesting to waste time living it. p. 188 #1,055 ²El hombre cultivado no es el que anda cargado de contestaciones, sino el que es capaz de preguntas. ²An educated man is not someone who walks around loaded with answers, but who is capable of asking questions.

#1,064 ²Todo ser yace disperso en pedazos por su vida y no hay manera de que nuestro amor lo recoja todo. ²Every being lies there, shattered to pieces by its life, and there is no way for our love to pick up all the pieces. #1,065 ²Nunca hubo felicidad tan libre de amenazas que nos atreviéramos a volverla a vivir. ²There was never any happiness so free of threats that we would dare live it again. #1,066 ²El liberalismo no ha luchado por la libertad sino la irresponsabilidad de la prensa. ²Liberalism has not fought for the freedom, but for the irresponsibility, of the press. #1,067 ²Las concesiones son los peldaños del patíbulo. ²Concessions are the steps up the gallows. p. 190 #1,068 ²El mundo moderno nos obliga a refutar tonterías, en lugar de callar a los tontos. ²The modern world obliges us to refute foolish ideas, instead of silencing the fools. #1,069 ²Única alternativa en este fin de siglo: cuartel oriental-burdel occidental. ²The only alternative at the end of this century: eastern barracks²western brothel. #1,070 ²El izquierdista inteligente admite que su generación no construirá la sociedad perfecta, pero confía en una generación futura. Su inteligencia descubre su impotencia personal, pero su izquierdismo le impide descubrir la impotencia del hombre. ²The intelligent leftist admits that his generation will not construct the perfect society, but trusts in a future generation. His intelligence discovers his personal impotence, but his leftism prevents him from discovering man¶s impotence. #1,071 ²Calumniado, como un reaccionario. ²Slandered, like a reactionary. #1,072 ²La superficialidad consiste, básicamente, en el odio a las contradicciones de la vida. ²Superficiality consists, basically, in hatred for the contradictions of life.

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#1,073 ²La pasión más ardiente no engaña, si conoce la inadecuación de su objeto. El amor no es ciego cuando ama locamente, sino cuando olvida que aún el irreemplazable ser amado sólo es una misteriosa primicia. El amor que no se cree justificado no es traición, sino propedeútica. ²The most ardent passion does not deceive, if it recognizes the inadequacy of its object. Love is not blind when it loves crazily, but when it forgets that even the irreplaceable loved being is only a mysterious first fruits. Love that does not believe it is justified is not betrayal, but propaedeutic. p. 191 #1,074 ²No tratemos de convencer; el apostolado daña los buenos modales. ²Let us not try to convince; apostolate harms good manners. #1,075 ²Aceptemos la sociología mientras clasifique y no pretenda explicar. ²Let us accept sociology as long as it classifies and does not seek to explain. #1,076 ²Buscar la ³verdad fuera del tiempo´ es la manera de encontrar la ³verdad de nuestro tiempo.´ El que busca la ³verdad de su tiempo´ encuentra los tópicos del día. ²To search for the ³truth outside of time´ is the way to find the ³truth of our time.´ Whoever searches for the ³truth of his time´ finds the clichés of the day. #1,077 ²Lo que más probablemente se avecina no es un terror revolucionario, sino un terror contrarevolucionario implementado por revolucionarios asqueados. ²What most likely is upon us is not a revolutionary terror, but a counter-revolutionary terror implemented by disgusted revolutionaries. #1,078 ²Para que el tronco de la individualidad crezca, hay que impedir que la libertad lo desparrame en ramas. ²For the trunk of individuality to grow, one must prevent freedom from making the trunk spread out it into branches. #1,079 ²La aparición del nacionalismo en cualquier nación indica que su originalidad agoniza. ²The appearance of nationalism in any nation indicates that its originality is in its death throes.

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#1,080 ²Que el cristianismo no resuelva los problemas sociales no es razón de apostatar sino para los que olvidan que nunca prometió resolverlos. ²That Christianity may not solve social problems is no reason to commit apostasy except for those who forget that it never promised to solve them. p. 192 #1,081 ²No es una restauración lo que el reaccionario anhela, sino un nuevo milagro. ²It is not a restoration for which the reactionary yearns, but for a new miracle. #1,082 ²Sólo el alma anclada en el pasado no naufraga bajo vientos nocturnos. ²Only the soul anchored in the past is not shipwrecked in night winds. #1,083 ²Divisa para el joven izquierdista: revolución y coño. ²A motto for the young leftist: revolution and pussy. #1,084 ²Esperar no entontece fatalmente, si no esperamos en un futuro con mayúscula. Abrigar la esperanza de un nuevo esplendor terrestre no es ilícito, siempre que esperemos un esplendor herido, endeble, mortal. Podemos amar sin culpa lo terrestre, mientras recordemos que amamos una arcilla fugitiva. ²Hope is not fatally stultifying, if we do not hope in a future with an upper-case F. To cherish the hope of a new earthly splendor is not illicit, provided we hope in a splendor that is wounded, frail, mortal. We can love what is of the earth without fault, as long as we remember that we love fleeting clay. #1,085 ²En vestirse, no en desvestirse, consiste siempre la civilización. ²Civilization always consists in dressing oneself, not undressing. #1,086 ²Las únicas enseñanzas importantes son las que no puede transmitir sino el tono de la voz. ²The only important lessons are those which cannot be imparted except by the tone of one¶s voice. #1,087 ²La desventura del moderno no es tener que vivir una vida mediocre, sino creer que podría vivir una que no lo fuera. ²Modern man¶s misfortune lies not in having to live a mediocre life, but in believing that he could live one that is not mediocre.

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p. 193 #1,088 ²La democracia es el régimen político donde el ciudadano confía los intereses públicos a quienes no confiaría jamás sus intereses privados. ²Democracy is the political regime in which the citizen entrusts the public interests to those men to whom he would never entrust his private interests. #1,089 ²Toda obra de arte nos habla de Dios. Diga lo que diga. ²Every work of art speaks to us of God. No matter what it says. #1,090 ²El mundo felizmente es inexplicable. (¿Qué sería un mundo explicable por el hombre?) ²Happily, the world cannot be explained. (What kind of world would it be if it could be explained by man?) #1,091 ²Dialogar con quienes no comparten nuestros postulados no es más que una manera tonta de matar al tiempo. ²Engaging in dialogue with those who do not share our postulates is nothing more than a stupid way to kill time. #1,092 ²La difusión de la cultura tuvo por efecto capacitar al tonto a parlotear de lo que ignora. ²The dissemination of culture has had the effect of enabling the fool to chatter about what he does not know. #1,093 ²Bien común, voluntad general, necesidad histórica, son los nombres con que el adulón de turno bautiza los caprichos de la fuerza. ²Common good, general will, historical necessity, are the names with which the inevitable flatterer christens the whims of force. #1,094 ²Como criterio de lo mejor, el hombre moderno no conoce sino la posterioridad. ²As a criterion of what is best, modern man knows nothing but posteriority. p. 194 #1,095 ²Para descubrir al tonto no hay mejor reactivo que la palabra: medieval. Inmediatamente ve rojo. ²To discover the fool there is no better reagent than the word ³medieval.´ He immediately sees red. 152

#1,096 ²La burocracia es uno de esos medios de la democracia que se convierten en uno de sus fines. ²Bureaucracy is one of democracy¶s means that turn into one of its ends. #1,097 ²Los nombres de los izquierdistas célebres acaban de adjetivos insultantes en boca de los izquierdistas. ²The names of famous leftists end up as insulting adjectives in the mouths of leftists. #1,098 ²Esa liberación de la humanidad que cantó el siglo XIX no resultó ser más que el turismo internacional. ²That liberation of humanity whose praises the 19th century sang ended up being nothing more than international tourism. #1,099 ²Cuando navegamos en océanos de imbecilidad, la inteligencia necesita el auxilio del buen gusto. ²When we sail in oceans of stupidity, intelligence requires the aid of good taste. #1,100 ²La justicia ha sido uno de los motores de la historia, porque es el nombre que asume la envidia en boca del querellante. ²Justice has been one of the motors of history, because it is the name envy assumes in the mouth of the son contesting his parents¶ will. #1,101 ²El siglo XIX no vivió más angustiado con sus represiones sexuales que el siglo XX con su liberación sexual. Obsesión idéntica, aun cuando de signo contrario. ²The 19th century did not live with more anguish because of its sexual repression than the 20th century with its sexual liberation. Identical obsession, even when the symptoms are the opposite. p. 195 #1,102 ²Ser reaccionario no es creer en determinadas soluciones, sino tener un sentido agudo de la complejidad de los problemas. ²Being a reactionary is not about believing in certain solutions, but about having an acute sense of the complexity of the problems.

#1,140 ²El único que agradece a la vida lo que la vida le da, es el que no espera todo de la vida. ²The only man who thanks life for what it gives him is the man who does not expect everything from life. #1,141 ²Si no heredamos una tradición espiritual que la interprete, la experiencia de la vida nada enseña. ²Unless we inherit a spiritual tradition to interpret it, life experience teaches us nothing. p. 201 #1,142 ²La ciudad desaparece, mientras el mundo entero se urbaniza. La ciudad occidental fue persona. Hoy, la hipertrofía y el centralismo estatal la desintegran en mero hacinamiento inánime de viviendas. ²The city is disappearing, while the entire world is becoming urbanized. A city, in the West, was a person. Today, overexpansion and state centralism disintegrate it into a mere inanimate heap of housing. #1,143 ²La irrupción de la historia no-europea en la tradición de Occidente es un episodio de la vida intelectual del XIX. Los partícipes de esta tradición no son herederos forzosos de esa historia y sólo pueden heredarla respetando las condiciones intelectuales de su ingreso al patrimonio de Occidente. En otros términos, puede haber sinólogos en Occidente, verbigracia, pero no taoístas. ²The irruption of non-European history into the Western tradition is an episode in the intellectual life of the 19th century. The participants in the Western tradition are not necessary heirs of non-European history and can only inherit it by respecting the intellectual conditions of its entry into the patrimony of the West. In other words, there can be Sinologists in the West, for instance, but not Taoists. #1,144 ²El ateismo de una filosofía consiste menos en negar a Dios que en no hallarle puesto. ²A philosophy¶s atheism consists less in denying God than in not finding a place for Him. #1,145 ²La sub-literatura es el conjunto de libros estimables que cada nueva generación lee con deleite, pero que nadie puede releer. ²Sub-literature is the group of worthy books that each new generation reads with pleasure, but which nobody can re-read.

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p. 202 #1,146 ²El órgano del placer es la inteligencia. ²The organ of pleasure is the intelligence. #1,147 ²Todos conocemos, en todos los campos, sargentos desdeñosos de Alejandro. ²We all know, in every field, sergeants who are disdainful of Alexander. #1,148 ²La ética que no mande renunciar es un crimen contra la dignidad a que debemos aspirar y contra la felicidad que podemos obtener. ²An ethics that does not command us to renounce is a crime against the dignity to which we should aspire and against the happiness which we can obtain. #1,149 ²El tumulto en torno de una obra de arte no es hoy indicio de importancia estética, sino de aprovechamiento político. ²The controversy surrounding a work of art today is not a measure of aesthetic importance but of political exploitation. #1,150 ²Los mediocres nos salvamos cuando somos tan mediocres que logramos verlo. ²We mediocre men are saved when we are so mediocre that we succeed in seeing it. #1,151 ²La prosperidad material envilece menos que los requisitos intelectuales y morales para lograrla. ²Material prosperity corrupts less than the intellectual and moral prerequisites for achieving it. p. 203 #1,152 ²Contra la humildad de las tareas que la vida le asigna, nadie protesta tan ruidosamente como el incapaz de desempeñar otras. ²Against the lowliness of the tasks which life assigns him nobody protests as loudly as the man who is incapable of carrying out any others. #1,153 ²Podemos pedir misericordia. ¿Pero con qué derecho reclamos justicia? ²We can beg for mercy. But with what right do we demand justice?

#1,162 ²El egoísta posiblemente no sepa lo que le conviene, pero no actúa, por lo menos, como si supiera lo que conviene a los demás. ²The egoist may not know what is suitable for himself, but he does not act, at least, as if he knew what is suitable for everyone else. p. 205 #1,163 ²La franqueza de quien no se respeta a sí mismo se convierte en simple falta de vergüenza. ²The frankness of someone who does not respect himself turns into simple shamelessness. #1,164 ²El irrespeto mutuo convierte pronto la amistad o el amor entre almas plebeyas en mero contrato bilateral de grosería. ²Mutual disrespect quickly turns friendship or love between plebeian souls into a mere bilateral contract for rudeness. #1,165 ²El impacto de un texto es proporcional a la astucia de sus reticencias. ²The impact a text makes is proportional to the cunning of its insinuations. #1,166 ²Civilizada es la época que no reserva la inteligencia para las faenas profesionales. ²An age is civilized if it does not reserve intelligence for professional work. #1,167 ²Alma culta es aquella donde el estruendo de los vivos no ahoga la música de los muertos. ²A cultured soul is one in which the din of the living does not drown out the music of the dead. #1,168 ²Si se trata meramente de organizar un paraíso terrenal, los curas sobran. El diablo basta. ²If it is merely a matter of organizing an earthly paradise, curates are more than enough. The devil will do. #1,169 ²Tal es la complejidad de los hechos históricos que toda teoría encuentra casos a qué aplicarse. ²Such is the complexity of historical events that every theory finds cases to which it can be applied.

#1,197 ²Presumimos explicar la historia, y fracasamos ante el misterio de quien mejor conocemos. ²We presume we can explain history, and yet we fail before the mystery of the person we know best. #1,198 ²Sin enemigo en las fronteras el gobernante olvida ser cuerdo. ²Without an enemy on the borders the ruler forgets to be prudent. #1,199 ²Aún la derecha de cualquier derecha me parece siempre demasiado a la izquierda. ²Even the farthest right of any right always seems too far to the left for me. p. 210 #1,200 ²No hay opinión de bobo que no convenga oír, ni que convenga acatar. ²There is no fool¶s opinion that is not worth hearing, but also none that is worth honoring. #1,201 ²Los tontos no se preocupan sino de las ortografías y olvidan la sintaxis. ²Fools worry about nothing but spelling and forget syntax. #1,202 ²Con la aparición de relaciones ³racionales´ entre los individuos, se inicia el proceso de putrefacción de una sociedad. ²With the appearance of ³rational´ relations among individuals begins the process of a society¶s decay. #1,203 ²Ser moderno es ver fríamente la muerte ajena y no pensar nunca en la propia. ²To be modern is to view another¶s death without emotion and never to think of one¶s own. #1,204 ²Depender de Dios es el ser del ser. ²To depend on God is the being¶s being. p. 211 #1,205 ²Escritor ilustre no es el que muchos leen, sino el que muchos creen haber leído. ²An illustrious author is not one whom many people read, but one whom many people believe they have read.

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#1,206 ²La irreemplazabilidad del individuo es la enseñanza del cristianismo y el postulado de la historografía. ²The irreplaceability of the individual is a teaching of Christianity and a postulate of historiography. #1,207 ²Las revoluciones no les destruyen a las naciones sino el alma. ²Revolutions destroy nothing of nations except their souls. #1,208 ²Los conservadores actuales no son más que liberales maltratados por la democracia. ²Today¶s conservatives are nothing more than liberals who have been ill-treated by democracy. #1,209 ²El valor de una emoción es independiente tanto de la idea, seguramente mediocre, en que se expresa, como del objeto, probablemente trivial, que la suscita. ²The value of an emotion is independent of the idea, surely mediocre, in which it is expressed, as well as of the object, probably trivial, which provokes it. #1,210 ²La historia universal es el relato de las ocasiones perdidas. ²Universal history is the story of lost opportunities. #1,211 ²La civilización agoniza, cuando la agricultura renuncia a ser modo de vida para volverse industria. ²Civilization is in agony when agriculture forsakes being a way of life in order to become an industry. p. 212 #1,212 ²Los dioses son campesinos que no acompañan al hombre sino hasta las puertas de las grandes urbes. ²The gods are peasants who accompany man only up to the gates of great cities. #1,213 ²El incienso litúrgico es el oxígeno del alma. ²Liturgical incense is the oxygen of the soul. #1,214 ²El progreso es hijo del conocimiento de la naturaleza. La fe en el progreso es hija de la ignorancia de la historia. ²Progress is the offspring of knowledge of nature. Faith in progress is the offspring of ignorance of history.

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#1,215 ²Morir y desaparecer no son sinónimo para una nación. ²³To die´ and ³to disappear´ are not synonyms when speaking of a nation. #1,216 ²Nada asegura al hombre que lo que inventa no lo mata. ²Nothing guarantees man that what he invents will not kill him. #1,217 ²El mundo moderno parece invencible. Como los saurios desaparecidos. ²The modern world appears invincible. Like the extinct dinosaurs. #1,218 ²Las auténticas transformaciones sociales no son obra de la frustración y la envidia, sino secuelas de epidemias de asco y de tedio. ²Authentic social transformations are not the work of frustration and envy, but the consequences of epidemics of disgust and boredom. p. 213 #1,219 ²Las ideologías se inventaron para que pueda opinar el que no piensa. ²Ideologies were invented so that men who do not think can give their opinions. #1,220 ²Innovar en materia litúrgica no es sacrilegio, sino estupidez. El hombre sólo venera rutinas inmemoriales. ²To innovate in liturgical matters is not sacrilege, but stupidity. Man only venerates immemorial routines. #1,221 ²El abuso eficaz de poder presupone el anonimato del opresor o el anonimato del oprimido. Los despotismos fracasan, cuando rostros inconfundibles se enfrentan. ²To be effective, the abuse of power presupposes the anonymity of the oppressor or the anonymity of the oppressed. Despotisms fail when unmistakable faces confront each other. #1,222 ²Sin analizar no comprendemos. Pero no presumamos haber comprendido, porque hemos analizado. ²If we do not analyze, we will not understand. But let us not presume that we have understood just because we have analyzed.

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#1,223 ²El porcentaje de electores que se abstienen de votar mide el grado de libertad concreta en una democracia. Donde la libertad es ficticia, o donde está amenazada el porcentaje tiende a cero. ²The percentage of eligible voters who abstain from voting measures the degree of concrete liberty in a democracy. Where liberty is fictitious, or where it is threatened, the percentage tends toward zero. #1,224 ²Si no jerarquizamos, acabamos siendo injustos con todo. Hasta con lo que fuimos, o con lo que somos. ²If we do not have hierarchies, we are eventually unjust with everything. Even with what we were, or what we are. p. 214 #1,225 ²El mal promete lo que no puede cumplir. El bien cumple lo que no sabe prometer. ²Evil promises what it cannot deliver on. Good delivers on what it does not know how to promise. #1,226 ²Las estupideces modernas son más irritantes que las antiguas, porque sus prosélitos pretenden justificarlas en nombre de la razón. ²Modern stupidities are more irritating than ancient stupidities because their proselytes seek to justify them in the name of reason. #1,227 ²La gente nos permite más fácilmente desdeñar sus ocupaciones serias que sus diversiones. ²People more easily allow us to despise their serious occupations than their diversions. #1,228 ²Un destino burocrático espera a los revolucionarios, como el mar a los ríos. ²A bureaucratic destiny awaits revolutionaries, like the sea awaits rivers. #1,229 ²Hoy no hay por quien luchar. Solamente contra quien. ²Today there is no one for whom to fight. Only against whom to fight. #1,230 ²Los medios actuales de comunicación le permiten al ciudadano moderno enterarse de todo sin entender nada. ²The media today allow the modern citizen to find out about everything without understanding anything. 169

p. 225 #1,303 ²El izquierdista, como el polemista de antaño, cree refutar una opinión acusando de inmoralidad al opinante. ²The leftist, like the polemicist of yesteryear, believes he refutes an opinion by accusing the holder of that opinion of immorality. #1,304 ²Los que manejan un vocabulario sociológico se figuran haber entendido porque han clasificado. ²Those who wield a sociological vocabulary imagine they have understood because they have classified. #1,305 ²Nuestros contemporáneos denigran el pasado para no suicidarse de vergüenza y de nostalgia. ²Our contemporaries denigrate the past so that they do not commit suicide out of shame and nostalgia. #1,306 ²Los museos son el invento de una humanidad que no tiene puesto para las obras de arte, ni en su casa, ni en su vida. ²Museums are the invention of a mankind that has no place for works of art, either in its home, or in its life. #1,307 ²La unanimidad, en una sociedad sin clases, no resulta de la ausencia de clases, sino de la presencia de la policía. ²Unanimity, in a classless society, results not from the absence of classes, but from the presence of the police. #1,308 ²Cada tabú suprimido hace retroceder la existencia humana hacia la insipidez del instinto. ²Each suppressed taboo makes human existence recede toward the dullness of instinct. #1,309 ²Los problemas sociales no son solubles. Pero podemos minorarlos evitando que el empeño de aliviar uno solo los agrave todos. ²Social problems cannot be solved. But we can ameliorate them by preventing our determination to alleviate just one from aggravating them all. p. 226 #1,310 ²El solitario es el delegado de la humanidad a lo importante. ²The recluse is humanity¶s delegate to what is important [in life].

#1,343 ²La nueva izquierda congrega a los que confiesan la ineficacia del remedio sin dejar de creer en la receta. ²The new left gathers together those who acknowledge the ineffectiveness of the cure without ceasing to believe in the prescription. p. 231 #1,344 ²Las decadencias no derivan de un exceso de civilización, sino del intento de aprovechar la civilización para eludir las prohibiciones en las cuales consiste. ²Decadence does not derive from an excess of civilization, but from the attempt to take advantage of civilization in order to elude the prohibitions of which it consists. #1,345 ²El moderno acepta cualquier yugo, siempre que sea impersonal la mano que lo impone. ²Modern man accepts any yoke, as long as the hand imposing it is impersonal. #1,346 ²Al intelectual indignado por el ³emburguesamiento del proletariado,´ nunca se le ocurre renunciar a aquellas cosas cuyo disfrute por el proletariado le horripila como prueba de emburguesamiento. ²It never occurs to the intellectual indignant at the ³embourgeoisement of the proletariat´ to renounce those things whose enjoyment by the proletariat horrifies him as proof of embourgeoisement. #1,347 ²Nunca es demasiado tarde para nada verdaderamente importante. ²It is never too late for anything truly important. #1,348 ²No hay verdad que no sea lícito estrangular si ha de herir a quien amamos. ²There is no truth which it is not licit to strangle if it would harm someone we love. #1,349 ²Mientras las diversiones sean suficientemente vulgares nadie protesta. ²As long as the entertainment is sufficiently vulgar, nobody protests. #1,350 ²No nos quejemos del suelo en que nacimos, sino de la planta que somos. ²Let us not complain of the soil in which we were born, but rather of the plant we are.

#1,394 ²Los léxicos especializados permiten hablar con precisión en las ciencias naturales y disfrazar trivialidades en las ciencias humanas. ²Specialized vocabularies allow one to speak with precision in the natural sciences and to disguise trivialities in the humanities. #1,395 ²Llamamos belleza de un idioma la destreza con que algunos lo escriben. ²We call the beauty of a language the skill with which some write it. #1,396 ²No es de inanición de lo que el espíritu a veces muere, sino del hartazgo de trivialidades. ²It is not from starvation that the spirit sometimes dies, but from satiety of trivialities. p. 238 #1,397 ²El alma no está en el cuerpo, sino el cuerpo en ella. Pero es en el cuerpo donde la palpamos. El absoluto no está en la historia, sino la historia en él. Pero es en la historia donde lo descubrimos. ²The soul is not in the body, but rather the body is in the soul. But it is in the body where we feel the soul. The absolute is not in history, but rather history is in the absolute. But it is in history where we discover the absolute. #1,398 ²Después de varias temporadas de urbanismo, alternadas con varios entreactos de guerra, el contexto rural y urbano de la era culta no sobrevivirá sino en atlas lingüísticos y en diccionarios etimológicos. ²After several periods of urbanism, as well as several interludes of war, the rural and urban context of the cultivated era will not survive except in linguistic atlases and etymological dictionaries. #1,399 ²Hoy se llama ³tener sentido común´ no protestar contra lo abyecto. ²Today it is called ³having common sense´ not to protest against the abject. #1,400 ²Ser marxista parece consistir en eximir de la interpretación marxista las sociedades comunistas. ²To be a Marxist appears to consist in exempting Communist societies from the Marxist interpretation. #1,401 ²¿Aprenderá el revolucionario algún día que las revoluciones podan en lugar de extirpar? ²Will the revolutionary learn some day that revolutions prune rather than uproot? 190

p. 245 #1,446 ²El el solo Evangelio no podemos albergarnos, como no podemos tampoco refugiarnos en la semilla del roble, sino junto al tronco torcido y bajo el desorden de las ramas. ²We cannot find shelter in the Gospel alone, as we also cannot take refuge in the seed of the oak tree, but rather next to the twisted trunk and under the disorder of the branches. #1,447 ²El hombre actual oscila entre la estéril rigidez de la ley y el vulgar desorden del instinto. Ignora la disciplina, la cortesía, el buen gusto. ²Man today oscillates between the sterile rigidity of the law and the vulgar disorder of instinct. He knows nothing of discipline, courtesy, good taste. #1,448 ²¿Proponer soluciones? ¡Como si el mundo no estuviese ahogándose en soluciones! ²Propose solutions? As if the world were not drowning in solutions! #1,449 ²La ³espiritualidad oriental´ moderna, como el arte oriental de los últimos siglos, es artículo de bazar. ²Modern ³Eastern spirituality,´ like the Eastern art of the last centuries, is merchandise from a bazaar. #1,450 ²La imbecilidad cambia de tema en cada época para que no la reconozcan. ²Imbecility changes the subject in each age so that it is not recognized. #1,451 ²Las jerarquías son celestes. En el infierno todos son iguales. ²Hierarchies are heavenly. In Hell all are equal. p. 246 #1,452 ²Las noticias periodísticas son el substituto moderno de la experiencia. ²Newspaper reports are the modern substitute for experience. #1,453 ²Es en la espontaneidad de lo que siento donde busco la coherencia de lo que pienso. ²It is in the spontaneity of what I feel where I search for the coherence of what I think.

#1,610 ²Los ³apóstoles de la cultura´ acaban volviéndola negocio. ²The ³apostles of culture´ eventually turn it into a business. #1,611 ²Nadie debe atreverse, sin temblar, a influir sobre cualquier destino. ²No one should dare, without trembling, to influence anyone¶s destiny. #1,612 ²Lo que el demócrata llama ³El Hombre´ no es más que la proyección espectral de su soberbia. ²What the democrat calls ³Man´ is no more than the ghostly projection of his pride. #1,613 ²Todo es voluminoso en este siglo. Nada es monumental. ²Everything is voluminous in this century. Nothing is monumental. p. 268 #1,614 ²La revolución absoluta es el tema predilecto de los que ni siquiera se atreven a protestar cuando los pisan. ²Absolute revolution is the favorite topic of those who do not even dare to protest when they are trodden on. #1,615 ²Lo único que avergüenza al moderno es confesar admiración por un autor pasado de moda. ²The only thing that makes modern man ashamed is to confess admiration for an author who is out of style. #1,616 ²Al izquierdista que proteste igualmente contra crímenes de derecha o de izquierda, sus camaradas, con razón, le dicen reaccionario. ²The leftist who protests equally against the crimes of the right or the left is called by his comrades, and rightly so, a reactionary. #1,617 ²El afán con que hoy se le busca explicación a todo en la psicología del inconsciente es reflejo de la angustia moderna ante la trascendencia. ²The eagerness with which an explanation for everything is sought in the psychology of the unconscious is a reflection of modern anxiety in the presence of transcendence. #1,618 ²Aun cuando tenga razón, una revolución no resuelve nada. ²Even when it is right, a revolution solves nothing. 215

#1,619 ²El periodismo fue la cuna de la crítica literaria. La universidad es su tumba. ²Journalism was the cradle of literary criticism. The university is its tomb. #1,620 ²Soy como el pueblo: el lujo no me indigna sino en manos indignas. ²I am like the people: luxury does not upset me except in unworthy hands. p. 269 #1,621 ²Las revoluciones tienen por función destruir las ilusiones que las causan. ²Revolutions have as their function the destruction of the illusions that cause them. #1,622 ²Al reaccionario no lo indignan determinadas cosas, sino cualquier cosa fuera de lugar. ²The reactionary is not upset by certain things, but by anything out of place. #1,623 ²El reaccionario es el guardián de las herencias. Hasta de la herencia del revolucionario. ²The reactionary is the guardian of every heritage. Even the heritage of the revolutionary. #1,624 ²Para comprender al filósofo no hay que inventariar sus ideas, sino identificar al ángel contra el cual lucha. ²To understand a philosopher it is not necessary to make an inventory of his ideas, but to identify the angel against which he fights. #1,625 ²El escritor nos invita a entender su idioma, no a traducirlo en idioma de nuestras equivalencias. ²The writer invites us to understand his language, not to translate it into the language of our equivalencies. #1,626 ²Escribir para la posteridad no es ansiar que nos lean mañana. Es aspirar a una determinada calidad de escritura. Aun cuando nadie nos lea. ²To write for posterity is not to worry whether they will read us tomorrow. It is to aspire to a certain quality of writing. Even when no one reads us.

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#1,627 ²No pertenezco a un mundo que perece. Prolongo y transmito una verdad que no muere. ²I do not belong to a world that is passing away. I prolong and transmit a truth that does not die.

#1,644 ²Un conjunto personal de soluciones auténticas no tiene coherencia de sistema sino de sinfonía. ²A personal group of authentic solutions has the coherence not of a system but of a symphony. #1,645 ²La cortesía es actitud del que no necesita presumir. ²Courtesy is the attitude of a man who does not need to presume. #1,646 ²El tonto llama ³prejuicios´ las conclusiones que no entiende. ²The fool calls conclusions he does not understand ³prejudices.´ #1,647 ²Solo debe inquietarnos lo que hacemos, aun cuando sólo cuenta lo que somos. ²The only thing that should disquiet us is what we do, even when the only thing that counts is what we are. #1,648 ²Las ideas nuevas ocasionan remolinos en la historia; las sensibilidades nuevas cambian su curso. ²New ideas occasion disturbances in history; new sensibilities change its course. p. 276 #1,649 ²³Actualidad´ designa la suma de lo insignificante. ²³Current events´ designates the sum total of what is insignificant. #1,650 ²Tratemos de adherir siempre al que pierde, para no tener que avergonzarnos de lo que hace siempre el que gana. ²Let us try always to adhere to the losing party, so that we will not have to be ashamed of what the winning party always does. #1,651 ²Ser común y corriente sin ser predecible es el secreto de la buena prosa. ²Being common and customary without being predictable is the secret of good prose. #1,652 ²Los problemas también se reparten en clases sociales. Hay problemas nobles, problemas plebeyos, e innúmeros problemas de medio pelo. ²Problems are also distributed along class lines. There are noble problems, plebeian problems, and innumerable middling problems.

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#1,653 ²Cuando un idioma se corrompe sus parlantes creen que se remoza. En el verdor de la prosa actual hay visos de carne mortecina. ²When a language is undergoing corruption, its speakers believe it is being brought up to date. In the youthfulness of contemporary prose there are views of carcasses. #1,654 ²Las comunicaciones fáciles trivializan hasta lo urgente. ²Easy communications trivialize even what is urgent. #1,655 ²Las aclamaciones de una época suelen ser más incomprensibles que sus incomprensiones. ²What an age acclaims tends to be more incomprehensible than what it does not comprehend. p. 277 #1,656 ²Los temas intocables abundan en tiempos democráticos. Raza, morbos, clima, resultan allí substancias caústicas. Nefando es allí lo que pueda implicar que la humanidad no es causa sui. ²Untouchable topics abound in democratic times. Race, illnesses, climate, end up being caustic substances there. Unspeakable there is anything that might imply that humanity is not causa sui. #1,657 ²El irrevocable edicto de demolición del mundo moderno nos dejó tan sólo la facultad de elegir al demoledor. Ángel o demonio. ²The irrevocable edict ordering the demolition of the modern world only left us the ability to choose the demolisher. Angel or demon. #1,658 ²Las revoluciones sólo legan a la literatura los lamentos de sus víctimas y las invectivas de sus enemigos. ²Revolutions bequeath to literature only the laments of their victims and the invectives of their enemies. #1,659 ²Los que viven en crepúsculos de la historia se figuran que el día nace cuando la noche se aproxima. ²Those who live in the twilight of history imagine that the day is being born when night is approaching.

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#1,660 ²La voz que nos seduce no es la voz con que el escritor nace, sino la que nace del encuentro de su talento con su idioma. La persona misteriosa elaborada por el uso inconfundible de un lenguaje. ²The voice that seduces us is not the voice with which the writer is born, but the one which is born from the encounter of his talent with his language. The mysterious person produced by his unmistakable use of language. #1,661 ²³Reconciliación del hombre consigo mismo´ ² la más acertada definición de la estupidez. ²³Reconciling man to himself´²the most accurate definition of stupidity. p. 278 #1,662 ²El principio de individuación en la sociedad es la creencia en el alma. ²The principle of individuation in society is belief in the soul. #1,663 ²Mientras menos adjetivos gastemos, más difícil mentir. ²The fewer adjectives we waste, the more difficult it is to lie. #1,664 ²Una pudibundez ridícula no le permite hoy al escritor inteligente tratar sino temas obscenos. Pero ya que aprendió a no avergonzarse de nada, no debiera avergonzarse de los sentimientos decentes. ²A ridiculous sense of shame will not allow the intelligent writer today to deal with anything but obscene topics. But since he learned not to be ashamed of anything, he should not be ashamed of decent sentiments. #1,665 ²El revolucionario no descubre el ³auténtico espíritu de la revolución´ sino ante el tribunal revolucionario que lo condena. ²The revolutionary does not discover the ³authentic spirit of the revolution´ except before the revolutionary tribunal that condemns him. #1,666 ²La mentira es la musa de las revoluciones: inspira sus programas, sus proclamaciones, sus panegíricos. Pero olvida amordazar a sus testigos. ²The lie is the muse of revolutions: it inspires their programs, their proclamations, their panegyrics. But it forgets to gag their witnesses.

#1,699 ²³Sociedad sin clases´ es aquella donde no hay aristocracia, ni pueblo. Donde sólo circula el burgués. ²³A classless society´ is one where there is neither aristocracy nor people. Where only the bourgeois moves around freely. #1,700 ²Lo que el reaccionario dice nunca interesa a nadie. Ni cuando lo dice, porque parece absurdo; ni al cabo de unos años, porque parece obvio. ²What the reactionary says never interests anybody. Neither at the time he says it, because it seems absurd, nor after a few years, because it seems obvious. #1,701 ²El absolutismo, intelectual o político, es el pecado capital contra el método jerárquico. Usurpación, por uno de los términos de un sistema, de los fueros de los otros. ²Absolutism, whether intellectual or political, is the capital sin against the hierarchical method. Usurpation, by one of the terms in the system, of the liberties of the others. #1,702 ²³Rueda de la fortuna´ es mejor alegoría de la historia que ³evolución de la humanidad.´ ²The ³wheel of fortune´ is a better analogy for history than the ³evolution of humanity.´ #1,703 ²Las ilusiones son las plagas del que renuncia a la esperanza. ²Illusions plague the man who renounces hope. p. 284 #1,704 ²La libertad embriaga como licencia de ser otro. ²Freedom intoxicates, as the license to be another. #1,705 ²Sólo el fracaso político de la derecha equilibra, en nuestro tiempo, el fracaso literario de la izquierda. ²Only the political failure of the right balances, in our time, the literary failure of the left. #1,706 ²Para actuar se requiere una noción operacional del objeto; pero se requiere una noción poética para comprender. ²In order to act, an operational notion of the object is required; but a poetic notion is required in order to understand.

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#1,707 ²El cristianismo no enseña que el problema tenga solución, sino que la invocación tiene respuesta. ²Christianity does not teach that the problem is solved, but that the prayer is answered. #1,708 ²El filósofo no demuestra, muestra. Nada dice al que no ve. ²The philosopher does not demonstrate; he shows. He says nothing to someone who does not see. #1,709 ²Dios acaba de parásito en las almas donde predomina la ética. ²God ends up being a parasite in souls where ethics predominates. #1,710 ²El teólogo deprava la teología queriendo convertirla en ciencia. Buscándole reglas a la gracia. ²The theologian corrupts theology by wanting to turn it into a science. By looking for rules for grace. #1,711 ²Lo difícil no es creer en Dios, sino creer que le importemos. ²What is difficult is not to believe in God, but to believe that we matter to Him. p. 285 #1,712 ²Por haberse presumido capaz de darle plenitud al mundo, el moderno lo ve volverse cada día más vacío. ²Because he presumed that he was capable of giving fullness to the world, modern man sees it become emptier each day. #1,713 ²Sociedad civilizada es aquella donde dolor y placer físico no son los argumentos únicos. ²A civilized society is one where physical pain and pleasure are not the only arguments. #1,714 ²El cristiano sabe que nada puede reclamar, pero que puede esperar todo. ²The Christian knows that he can claim nothing, but can hope for everything. #1,715 ²Renunciamos más fácilmente a una realidad que a sus símbolos. ²We more readily abandon a reality than its symbols.

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#1,716 ²El cristianismo no resuelve ³problemas´; meramente nos obliga a vivirlos en más alto nivel. Los que pretenden que los resuelva lo enredan en la ironía de toda solución. ²Christianity does not solve ³problems´; it merely obliges us to live them at a higher level. Those who claim that it does solve them entangle it in the irony of every solution. #1,717 ²La cortesía es obstáculo al progreso. ²Courtesy is an obstacle to progress. #1,718 ²Porque fallaron los cálculos de sus expectativas, el tonto cree burlada la locura de nuestras esperanzas. ²Because his carefully calculated expectations failed, the fool believes that the madness of our hopes has been mocked. #1,719 ²Tanto en la sociedad como en el alma, cuando las jerarquías dimiten los apetitos mandan. ²In society just as in the soul, when hierarchies abdicate the appetites rule. p. 286 #1,720 ²Carecemos de más sólidas razones para prever que habrá un mañana que para creer que habrá otra vida. ²We lack more solid reasons to anticipate that there will be a tomorrow than to believe that there will be another life. #1,721 ²³Concientizar´ es la variante púdica de adoctrinar. ²³Raising awareness´ is the modest version of indoctrination. #1,722 ²Las generaciones recientes circulan entre los escombros de la cultura de Occidente como caravana de turistas japoneses por las ruinas de Palmira. ²Recent generations move among the ruins of Western culture like a caravan of Japanese tourists among the ruins of Palmyra. #1,723 ²El espíritu no se transmite de un mortal a otro mortal mediante fórmulas. Más fácilmente que por un concepto, el espíritu pasa de un alma a otra alma por una quebradura de la voz. ²The spirit is not transmitted from one mortal to another by way of formulas. More easily than through a concept, the spirit passes from one soul to another soul through a quivering of the voice.

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#1,724 ²El espíritu es falible sumisión a normas, no infalible sujeción a leyes. ²The spirit is fallible submission to norms, not infallible subjection to laws. #1,725 ²Los reaccionarios eludimos necesariamente por fortuna la vulgaridad del perfecto ajuste a las modas del día. ²We reactionaries escape, necessarily by good fortune, the vulgarity of conforming perfectly to the fashions of the day. #1,726 ²El pecado mortal del crítico está en soñar secretamente que podría perfeccionar al autor. ²The mortal sin of the critic lies in secretly dreaming that he could perfect the author. #1,727 ²Tan sólo entre amigos no hay rangos. ²Only among friends are there no ranks. p. 287 #1,728 ²La mano que no supo acariciar no sabe escribir. ²The hand that has not learned how to caress does not know how to write. #1,729 ²Las experiencias espiritualmente más hondas no provienen de meditaciones intelectuales profundas, sino de la visión privilegiada de algo concreto. En el larario del alma no veneramos grandes dioses, sino fragmentos de frases, gajo de sueños. ²The deepest spiritual experiences do not come from profound intellectual meditations, but rather from the privileged vision of something concrete. In the lararium of the soul we do not venerate great gods, but fragments of phrases, the slice of a dream. #1,730 ²Las distintas posturas del hombre lo colocan ante valores distintos. No existe posición privilegiada desde la cual se observe la conjunción de todos en un valor único. ²Man¶s different postures place him before different values. There exists no privileged position from which to observe the conjunction of all values into one single value.

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#1,731 ²La tradición es obra del espíritu que, a su vez, es obra de la tradición. Cuando una tradición perece el espíritu se extingue, y las presentaciones que plasmó en objetos revierten a su condición de utensilios. ²Tradition is a work of the spirit which, in turn, is a work of the tradition. When a tradition perishes the spirit is extinguished, and the presentations it shaped into objects revert to their condition as instruments. #1,732 ²El mundo no es lugar donde el alma se aventura, sino su aventura misma. ²The world is not a place where the soul goes on an adventure, but the adventure itself. #1,733 ²Retórica es todo lo que exceda lo estrictamente necesario para convencerse a sí mismo. ²Rhetoric is everything exceeding what is strictly necessary to convince oneself. p. 288 #1,734 ²La técnica tradicional educaba, porque su aprendizaje trasmitía gestos insertos en un modo de existencia, la enseñanza de la técnica racionalista meramente instruye, trasmitiendo gestos solos. ²Traditional technology used to educate, because the mastery of it transmitted gestures integrated into a way of life; the teaching of rationalist technology merely instructs, by transmitting gestures alone. #1,735 ²Las ideas nuevas suelen ser rescoldo que avivan nuevos soplos del espíritu. ²New ideas tend to be an ember stirred up by new gusts of the spirit. #1,736 ²El hombre no sabe que destruye sino después de haberlo destruido. ²Man does not know what he destroys until after he has destroyed it. #1,737 ²Si las palabras no reemplazan nada, sólo ellas completan todo. ²If words do not replace anything, only they complete everything. #1,738 ²El que se dice respetuoso de todas las ideas se confiesa listo a claudicar. ²The man who says he is respectful of all ideas is admitting that he is ready to give in. #1,739 ²Porque sabemos que el individuo le importa a Dios, no olvidemos que la humanidad parece importarle poco. ²Because we know that God cares about the individual, let us not forget that He seems to care little about humanity. 232

#1,740 ²Morir es el signo inequívoco de nuestra dependencia. Nuestra dependencia es el fundamento inequívoco de nuestra esperanza. ²Death is the unequivocal sign of our dependence. Our dependence is the unequivocal foundation of our hope. p. 289 #1,741 ²Resolvemos ciertos problemas demostrando que no existen y de otros negamos que existan para no tener que resolverlos. ²We solve certain problems by proving they do not exist and others we deny even exist so that we do not have to solve them. #1,742 ²El hombre cortés seduce en secreto aún al que lo insulta. ²The courteous man secretly seduces even the man who insults him. #1,743 ²De lo importante no hay pruebas, sino testimonios. ²Of anything important there are no proofs, only testimonies. #1,744 ²Las reglas éticas varían, el honor no cambia. Noble es el que prefiere fracasar a envilecer las herramientas de su triunfo. ²Ethical rules vary; honor does not change. A man is noble if he prefers to fail rather than to debase the tools of his triumph. #1,745 ²Al que yerra de buena voluntad se le imputan a la vez su buena voluntad y su error. ²To a man who errs out of good will are imputed both his good will and his error. #1,746 ²Las exigencias del honor crecen con el rango de las obligaciones y parecen pronto extravagantes a las almas plebeyas. ²The demands of honor increase with the rank of the obligations and soon seem extravagant to plebeian souls. #1,747 ²Lo que vuelve sonrisa la contracción de unos músculos es el roce de invisibles alas. ²What turns the contraction of a few muscles into a smile is the light touch of invisible wings.

#1,783 ²Nadie es importante durante largo tiempo sin volverse bobo. ²No one is important for a long time without becoming a fool. #1,784 ²El atardecer de ciertas vidas no tiene patetismo de ocaso sino plenitud de mediodía. ²The twilight of certain lives is possessed not of the pathos of a sunset but of the fullness of midday. #1,785 ²El hombre práctico frunce un ceño perplejo al oír ideas inteligentes, tratando de resolver si oye pamplinas o impertinencias. ²The practical man wrinkles a perplexed brow when he hears intelligent ideas, trying to determine whether he is hearing nonsense or insolence. #1,786 ²Al público no lo convencen sino las conclusiones de raciocinios cuyas premisas ignora. ²The public is not convinced except by the conclusions of syllogisms of whose premises they are ignorant. p. 295 #1,787 ²En la historia es sensato esperar milagros y absurdo confiar en proyectos. ²In history it is wise to hope for miracles and absurd to trust in plans. #1,788 ²El intelectual irrita al hombre culto como el adolescente al adulto, no por la audacia de sus ocurrencias sino por la trivialidad de sus petulancias. ²The intellectual irritates the civilized man, just as the adolescent irritates the adult, not because of the audacity of his bright ideas but because of the triviality of his arrogance. #1,789 ²El infortunio hoy día de innúmeras almas decentes está en tener que desdeñar, sin saber en nombre de qué hacerlo. ²The misfortune these days of innumerable decent souls lies in having to disdain, without knowing in the name of what to do so. #1,790 ²El estilo es orden a que el hombre somete el caos. ²Style is the order to which man subjects chaos. #1,791 ²El determinista jura que no había pólvora, cuando la pólvora no estalla; jamás sospecha que alguien apagó la mecha. ²The determinist swears that there was no gunpowder, when the gunpowder does not explode; he never suspects that somebody put out the fuse. 238

#1,827 ²El pintoresco traje de revolucionario se descolora insensiblemente en severo uniforme de policía. ²The revolutionary¶s picturesque outfit changes colors imperceptibly until it matches the severe uniform of a police officer. #1,828 ²Sin estructura jerárquica no es posible transformar la libertad de fábula en hecho. El liberal descubre siempre demasiado tarde que el precio de la igualdad es el estado omnipotente. ²Without a hierarchical structure it is not possible to transform freedom from a fable into a fact. The liberal always discovers too late that the price of equality is the omnipotent state. #1,829 ²Reaccionarios y marxistas viviremos igualmente incómodos en la sociedad futura; pero los marxistas mirarán con ojos de padre estupefacto, nosotros con ironía de forastero. ²We reactionaries will live in the future society just as uncomfortably as will the Marxists; but the Marxists will look upon it with the eyes of a dumbfounded father, while we will regard it with the irony of a stranger. #1,830 ²El emburguesamiento del proletariado se originó en su conversión al evangelio industrial que el socialismo predica. ²The embourgeoisement of the proletariat originated in its conversion to the industrial gospel preached by socialism. p. 301 #1,831 ²El número creciente de los que juzgan ³inaceptable´ el mundo moderno nos confortaría, si no los supiéramos cautivos de las mismas convicciones que lo hicieron inaceptable. ²The growing number of people who consider the modern world ³unacceptable´ would comfort us, if we did not know that they are captives of the same convictions that made the modern world unacceptable. #1,832 ²La prontitud con que la sociedad moderna absorbe a sus enemigos no se explicaría, si la gritería aparentemente hostil no fuese simple requerimiento de promociones impacientes. ²The speed with which modern society absorbs its enemies could not be explained if their apparently hostile clamor were not simply an impatient demand for promotions. #1,833 ²Nada cura al progresista. Ni siquiera los pánicos frecuentes que le propina el progreso. ²Nothing cures the progressive. Not even the frequent panic attacks administered to him by progress.

#1,843 ²El que no se agita sin descanso, para hartar su codicia, siempre se siente en la sociedad moderna un poco culpable. ²Whoever who does not agitate without rest in order to satisfy his greed always feels a little guilty in modern society. p. 303 #1,844 ²La lucidez es el botín del derrotado. ²Lucidity is the booty of the defeated. #1,845 ²Si no encuentra sucesivas barreras de incomprensión, la obra de arte no impone su significado. ²Unless it runs up against successive barriers of incomprehension, a work of art does not impress its meaning on anyone. #1,846 ²Las supuestas vidas frustradas suelen ser meras petulantes ambiciones frustradas. ²So-called frustrated lives tend to be merely overweening, frustrated ambitions. #1,847 ²En toda época hay dos tipos de lectores: el curioso de novedades y el aficionado a la literatura. ²In every age there are two types of readers: the curious reader in search of novelties and the aficionado of literature. #1,848 ²Lo que el historiador de izquierda considera central de una época no ha sido nunca tema de obras que la posteridad admire. ²What the leftist historian considers central to an age has never been the subject of works that have been admired by posterity. #1,849 ²Al objeto no lo constituye la suma de sus representaciones posibles, sino la de sus representaciones estéticamente satisfactorias. ²The object is not constituted by the sum of its possible representations, but by the sum of its aesthetically satisfactory representations. #1,850 ²La pedantería es el arma con que el profesional protege sus intereses gremiales. ²Pedantry is the weapon with which the professional protects the interests of his guild.

#1,869 ²Para que una continuidad cultural se rompa basta la destrucción de ciertas instituciones, pero cuando se reblandece el alma no basta la supervivencia de las mismas para que no se rompa. ²For a cultural continuity to be broken, the destruction of certain institutions is enough, but when the soul softens, the survival of those very same institutions is not enough to prevent it from being broken. #1,870 ²Tratemos de convertir el peso que agobia en fuerza ascensional que salve. ²Let us try to turn the burden that weighs us down into a force that lifts us up to salvation. #1,871 ²Tan sólo en lo que logra expresar noblemente capta el hombre verdades profundas. ²Only in what he manages to express nobly does man grasp profound truths. p. 307 #1,872 ²No es en el descampado del mundo en donde el hombre muere de frío, es en el palacio de conceptos que el intelecto levanta. ²It is not in the world¶s steppes where man dies of the cold; it is in the palace of concepts erected by the intellect. #1,873 ²No hay oficio despreciable, mientras no se le atribuya importancia que no tiene. ²There is no contemptible occupation, as long as it is not credited with any importance it does not have. #1,874 ²Atribuir a Occidente una posición axil en la historia sería extravagante, si el resto del mundo copiara sólo su técnica, si cualquier forma que hoy se invente, en cualquier parte, no pareciese siempre inventada por un occidental sin talento. ²To attribute an axial position in history to the West would be extravagant, if the rest of the world copied only its technology, if any form which is invented today, in whatever area, did not always appear to be invented by a Westerner without talent. #1,875 ²Cuando decimos que las palabras transfiguran, el tonto entiende que adulteran. ²When we say that words transfigure, the fool mistakenly thinks that they adulterate. #1,876 ²El error no grana bien sino a la sombra de la verdad. Hasta el diablo se esquiva aburrido de donde el cristianismo se extingue. ²Error does not seed well except in the shadow of the truth. Even the devil becomes bored and excuses himself from where Christianity is being extinguished.

#1,910 ²Todo esplendor terrestre es labor de manos atónitas, porque ningún esplendor depende de la voluntad humana. Porque todo esplendor refuta la aserción radical del pecado. ²All earthly splendor is the labor of astounded hands, because no splendor depends on the human will. Because all splendor refutes the radical assertion of sin. #1,911 ²El nacionalismo literario selecciona sus temas con ojos de turista. De su tierra no ve sino lo exótico. ²Literary nationalism selects its themes with the eyes of a tourist. It sees nothing of its land but the exotic. p. 313 #1,912 ²Reeducar al hombre consistirá en enseñarle de nuevo a estimar correctamente los objetos, i.e.: a necesitar pocos. ²Reeducating man will consist of teaching him once again to value objects correctly: that is, to need few. #1,913 ²Sin la influencia de lo que el tonto llama retórica, la historia no hubiese sido más que un tumulto sórdido. ²Without the influence of what the fool calls rhetoric, history would have been nothing more than a sordid tumult. #1,914 ²El pecado radical relega al pecador en un universo silencioso y gris que deriva a flor de agua, náufrago inerte, hacia la insignificancia inexorable. ²Radical sin relegates the sinner to a silent, gray universe, drifting on the surface of the water, a lifeless shipwreck, toward inexorable insignificance. #1,915 ²No es porque existan épocas ³superadas´ por lo que ninguna restauración es posible, sino porque todo es mortal. El hijo no sucede a un padre superado, sino a un padre muerto. ²It is not because there are ages that have been ³surpassed´ that no restoration is possible, but because everything is mortal. The son does not succeed a father who has been surpassed, but a father who has died. #1,916 ²Lo que descubrimos al envejecer no es la vanidad de todo, sino de casi todo. ²What we discover as we age is not the vanity of everything, but of almost everything.

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#1,917 ²El hombre emerge de la bestia al jerarquizar sus instintos. ²Man emerges from the beast when he orders his instincts hierarchically. #1,918 ²La precisión en filosofía es una falsa elegancia. En cambio la precisión literaria es fundamento del acierto estético. ²Precision in philosophy is a false elegance. On the other hand, literary precision is the foundation of aesthetic achievement. p. 314 #1,919 ²Del encuentro con dioses subterráneos cuidémonos de regresar dementes. ²Let us be careful not to return from an encounter with the gods of the netherworld as madmen. #1,920 ²Los hombres no suelen habitar sino el piso bajo de sus almas. ²Men tend not to live on anything but the ground floor of their souls. #1,921 ²La historia auténtica es transfiguración del acontecimiento bruto por la inteligencia y la imaginación. ²Authentic history is the transfiguration of the raw event by intelligence and imagination. #1,922 ²El individuo no busca su identidad sino cuando desespera de su calidad. ²The individual does not search for his identity except when he despairs of his quality. #1,923 ²El que le niega sus virtudes a la burguesía ha sido contaminado por el peor de sus vicios. ²Whoever denies the bourgeoisie its virtues has been infected with the worst of its vices. #1,924 ²Desconfío del sistema que el pensamiento deliberadamente construye, confío en el que resulta de la constelación de sus huellas. ²I distrust the system deliberately constructed by thought; I trust in the one that results from the pattern of its footprints. #1,925 ²El absolutista anhela una fuerza soberana que sojuzgue a las otras, el liberal una multitud de fuerzas débiles que se neutralicen mutuamente. Pero el mandamiento axiológico decreta jerarquías de fuerzas múltiples, vigorosas, y actuantes. ²The absolutist wishes for a sovereign force that will subdue all others, the liberal a multitude of weak forces that will neutralize each other. But the axiological commandment decrees hierarchies of multiple vigorous and active forces.

#2,001 ²El encomio de la justicia nos embriaga, porque nos parece apología de la pasión, justa o injusta, que nos ciega. ²A paean to justice intoxicates us, because it seems to us to be an apology for the passion, just or unjust, which blinds us. p. 326 #2,002 ²Si se aspira tan sólo a dotar de un número creciente de artículos a un número creciente de seres, sin que importe la calidad de los seres, ni de los artículos, el capitalismo es la solución perfecta. ²If one only aspires to provide a growing number of persons with a growing number of goods, without worrying about the quality of the persons, or of the goods, then capitalism is the perfect solution. #2,003 ²Los partidos políticos contemporáneos han acabado confluyendo hasta en la misma retórica. ²Contemporary political parties have ended up converging even in their rhetoric. #2,004 ²El profesional nunca confiesa que en la ciencia que practica abundan verdades insignificantes. ²The professional never admits that in the science he practices insignificant truths abound. #2,005 ²Aún para la compasión budista el individuo es sólo sombra que se desvanece. La dignidad del individuo es impronta cristiana sobre arcilla griega. ²Even for Buddhist compassion, the individual is only a shadow that vanishes. The dignity of the individual is a Christian cast made out of Greek clay. #2,006 ²El que se cree original sólo es ignorante. ²Whoever believes he is original is just ignorant. #2,007 ²La auténtica superioridad le es insoportable al tonto. Sus simulacros, en cambio, lo embelesan. ²Authentic superiority is intolerable for the fool. Its simulacra, on the other hand, fascinate him. #2,008 ²Sobre los verdaderos resultados de una revolución previa consultemos a los revolucionarios que preparan la siguiente. ²For the true results of a previous revolution, let us consult the revolutionaries who are preparing the next one.

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p. 327 #2,009 ²El escritor debe saber que pocos lo verán por muchos que lo miren. ²A writer should know that only a few of those who look at him will actually see him. #2,010 ²El hombre sale menos a caza de verdades que de escapatorias. ²Man goes out hunting less for truths than for ways of getting out. #2,011 ²El que no pregona panaceas no adquiere el compromiso de contestar preguntas para las que no tiene respuestas. ²The man who does not claim to have panaceas does not become obliged to answer questions to which he has no answers. #2,012 ²Toda sociedad nace con enemigos que la acompañan en silencio hasta la encrucijada nocturna donde la degüellan. ²Every society is born with enemies who accompany it in silence until they ambush it at night and slit its throat. #2,013 ²Mientras más grande sea un país democrático más mediocres tienen que ser sus gobernantes: son elegidos por más gente. ²The larger a democratic country is, the more mediocre its rulers must be: they are elected by more people. #2,014 ²El olor del pecado de soberbia atrae al hombre como el de la sangre a la fiera. ²The scent of the sin of pride attracts man like blood attracts a wild beast. #2,015 ²La humanidad localiza usualmente el dolor donde no está la herida, el pecado donde no está la culpa. ²Humanity usually locates the pain where the injury is not, the sin where the fault is not. p. 328 #2,016 ²De la riqueza o del poder debiera sólo hablar el que no alargó la mano cuando estuvieron a su alcance. ²The only man who should speak of wealth or power is one who did not extend his hand when they were within his reach.

#2,026 ²Mediante la noción de ³evolución cultural,´ el antropólogo demócrata trata de esquivar las interrogaciones biológicas. ²By means of the notion of ³cultural evolution,´ the democratic anthropologist tries to avoid questions of biology. #2,027 ²Tan estúpido es ³tener fe´ (sin saber en quién) como anhelar ³una fe´ (sin saber cuál). ²It is as stupid to ³have faith´ (without knowing in whom) as to yearn for ³a faith´ (without knowing which one). #2,028 ²El titanismo del arte moderno comienza con el titanismo heroico de Miguel-Ángel y concluye con el titanismo caricatural de Picasso. ²The titanism of modern art begins with the heroic titanism of Michelangelo and concludes with the cartoonish titanism of Picasso. p. 330 #2,029 ²Cuando entendemos lo que entendieron los que parecieron entender, quedamos estupefactos. ²When we understand what those who seemed to understand [really] understood, we are dumbfounded. #2,030 ²La izquierda nunca atribuye su fracaso a error de diagnóstico sino a perversidad de los hechos. ²The left never attributes its failure to a mistaken diagnosis but to the perversity of events. #2,031 ²Para oprimir al pueblo es necesario suprimir en nombre del pueblo lo que se distinga del pueblo. ²In order to oppress the people, it is necessary to suppress in the name of the people that which stands out from the people. #2,032 ²El que no se mueve entre obras de arte como entre animales peligrosos no sabe entre qué se mueve. ²Whoever does not move among works of art as if among dangerous animals does not know among what he moves. #2,033 ²A los filósofos cristianos les ha costado trabajo tomar el pecado en serio, es decir: ver qué trasciende los fenómenos éticos. ²It has taken Christian philosophers work to take sin seriously, that is to say: to see that it transcends ethical phenomena.

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#2,034 ²El apostolado pervierte de dos maneras: o induciendo a mitigar para adormecer, o a exagerar para despertar. ²Apostolate perverts in two ways: by inducing one either to mitigate in order to lull to sleep, or to exaggerate in order to arouse. #2,035 ²La condescendencia teórica con el vicio no es prueba de liberalidad y de elegancia, sino de vulgaridad. ²Theoretical affability toward vice is not a proof of liberality and elegance, but of vulgarity. #2,036 ²La fe no es convicción que debamos defender, sino convicción contra la cual no logramos defendernos. ²Faith is not a conviction we ought to defend, but a conviction we do not succeed in defending ourselves against. p. 331 #2,037 ²El pueblo no se convierte a la religión que predica una minoría militante, sino a la que impone una minoría militar. Cristianismo o Islamismo lo supieron; el comunismo lo sabe. ²The people does not convert to the religion preached by a militant minority, but to the one imposed by a militant minority. Christianity and Islam knew it; Communism knows it. #2,038 ²Reduzcamos nuestros asertos sobre el hombre a especificaciones sobre estratos de individuos. ²Let us limit our assertions about man to specifications about strata of individuals. #2,039 ²Lo convencional no tiene por qué ser defecto estético, siendo mero rasgo sociológico. ²The conventional is not necessarily an aesthetic defect, since it is merely a sociological trait. #2,040 ²Al subjetivismo petulante del que se cree medida se contrapone el subjetivismo humilde del que se niega a ser eco. ²To the petulant subjectivism of the man who believes he is the measure [of all things] is opposed the humble subjectivism of the man who refuses to be an echo. #2,041 ²Nadar contra la corriente no es necedad si las aguas corren hacia cataratas. ²Swimming against the current is not idiotic if the waters are racing toward a waterfall. #2,042 ²El pensador contemporáneo nos conduce por un laberinto de conceptos a un lugar público. ²The contemporary thinker leads us through a labyrinth of concepts to a public place.

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#2,043 ²Las facciones del circo no fueron partidos políticos; los partidos políticos de hoy son facciones de circo. ²The circus factions were not political parties; today¶s political parties are circus factions. p. 332 #2,044 ²Salvo el reaccionario, hoy sólo encontramos candidatos a administradores de la sociedad moderna. ²With the exception of the reactionary, today we only meet candidates for [positions as] administrators of modern society. #2,045 ²El análisis crítico que practica la crítica actual es ilegible y vuelve ilegible la obra que analiza. ²The critical analysis practiced by contemporary criticism is unreadable and makes the work it analyzes unreadable. #2,046 ²Hoy el individuo tiene que ir reconstruyendo dentro de sí mismo el universo civilizado que va desapareciendo en torno suyo. ²Today the individual must gradually reconstruct inside himself the civilized universe that is disappearing around him. #2,047 ²Enseñar literatura es enseñarle al alumno a creer que admira lo que no admira. ²To teach literature is to teach the pupil to believe that he admires what he does not admire. #2,048 ²Si el poder de una imagen dependiera de la clase de recuerdos que evoca según el psicoanalista, ninguna imagen despertaría nostalgia sino risa. ²If the power of an image depended on the type of memories that it invokes according to the psychoanalyst, any image would provoke not nostalgia but laughter. #2,049 ²La compasión es la mejor excusa de la envidia. ²Compassion is the best excuse for envy. #2,050 ²El sufragio popular es hoy menos absurdo que ayer: no porque las mayorías sean más cultas, sino porque las minorías lo son menos. ²Popular suffrage is less absurd today than yesterday: not because the majorities are more cultured, but because the minorities are less so.

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#2,051 ²Librar al hombre es sujetarlo a la codicia y al sexo. ²To liberate man is to subject him to greed and sex. p. 333 #2,052 ²Aprender que los bienes más valiosos son los menos raros cuesta un largo aprendizaje. ²To learn that the most valuable goods are the least rare requires a long apprenticeship. #2,053 ²Después de ver el trabajo explotar y arrasar el mundo, la pereza parece madre de las virtudes. ²After seeing work exploit and demolish the world, laziness seems like the mother of the virtues. #2,054 ²La vanidad nacionalista del ciudadano de país importante es la más divertida: la diferencia entre el ciudadano y su país siendo allí mayor. ²The nationalist vanity of the citizen of an important country is the most amusing, since the difference between the citizen and his country is greater there. #2,055 ²Padre moderno es el dispuesto a sacrificios pecuniarios para que sus hijos no lo prolonguen, ni lo reemplacen, ni lo imiten. ²A modern father is one who is ready to make financial sacrifices so that his children will not prolong his life, replace him, or imitate him. #2,056 ²No debemos asustarnos: lo que admiramos no muere. Ni regocijarnos: lo que detestamos tampoco. ²We should not be frightened: what we admire does not die. Nor be delighted: neither does what we detest. #2,057 ²El diálogo no consiste en inteligencias que discuten sino en vanidades que se afrontan. ²Dialogue does not consist of intelligences discussing with each other but of vanities confronting each other. p. 334 #2,058 ²Todo episodio revolucionario necesita que un partidario lo relate y que un adversario lo explique. ²Every episode of a revolution needs a partisan to relate it and an adversary to explain it. #2,059 ²El hombre habla de la relatividad de la verdad, porque llama verdades sus innúmeros errores. ²Man speaks of the relativity of truth because he calls his innumerable errors truths. 270

#2,171 ²Los reaccionarios somos infortunados: las izquierdas nos roban ideas y las derechas vocabulario. ²We reactionaries are unfortunate: the left steals our ideas and the right our vocabulary. #2,172 ²El que se precia de ³haber vivido mucho´ debe callar para no demostrarnos que no ha entendido nada. ²Whoever takes pride in ³having lived through a lot´ should keep quiet so as not to prove to us that he has understood nothing. #2,173 ²Al que no tiene buena opinión de sí mismo hoy lo creen hipócrita. ²Today, if a man does not have a good opinion of himself, they believe he is a hypocrite. #2,174 ²Las convicciones profundas se contagian en silencio. ²Profound convictions are transmitted in silence. p. 354 #2,175 ²Sus períodos de tolerancia le sirven a la humanidad para forjarse una intolerancia nueva. ²Its periods of tolerance serve humanity as time to forge a new intolerance. #2,176 ²En una democracia sólo sonríe a los demás el político en busca de votos. Los demás no pueden darse el lujo de una mutua sonrisa: todos son rivales de todos. ²In a democracy the only man who smiles at everyone else is the politician in search of votes. No one else can afford the luxury of smiling at others: everyone is everyone else¶s rival. #2,177 ²La historia es un libro de imágenes más que un repertorio de nociones. ²History is a picture book rather than a repertoire of notions. #2,178 ²La Iglesia reciente no ha sabido distinguir entre las nuevas verdades que piden la reconstrucción del edificio teológico y los nuevos errores que persiguen la demolición. La crítica neo-testamentaria, verbi gratia, y las ³biografías´ de Jesús. ²The Church in recent times has not known how to distinguish between the new truths that call for the rebuilding of the theological structure and the new errors that aim at its demolition. New Testament criticism, for example, and the ³biographies´ of Jesus.

p. 358 #2,199 ²La interpretación de un acontecimiento dada por el paleto indoctrinado suele ser cierta. La interpretación dada por el personaje adoctrinado y semi-culto es siempre falsa. ²The interpretation of an event given by an indoctrinated hick tends to be correct. The interpretation given by a well-instructed and semi-learned personage is always false. #2,200 ²El reaccionario de hoy tiene una satisfacción que ignoró el de ayer: ver los programas modernos terminar no sólo en catástrofe sino también en ridículo. ²Today¶s reactionary has a satisfaction which yesterday¶s did not: to see modern programs end not only in disaster but also in ridicule. #2,201 ²Las teologías modernas suelen ser contorsiones de teólogo para no confesarse a sí mismo su incredulidad. ²Modern theologies tend to be the contortions of a theologian who is trying to avoid admitting his unbelief to himself. #2,202 ²Denunciar al imbécil no significa que anhelemos abolirlo. Queremos la diversidad a cualquier precio. Pero el encanto de la variedad no debe impedirnos calificar correctamente. ²Our denouncing the imbecile does not mean that we wish to get rid of him. We want diversity at any price. But the charm of variety should not prevent us from judging correctly. #2,203 ²El cristiano sabe que el cristianismo cojeará hasta el final del mundo. ²The Christian knows that Christianity will limp until the end of the world. #2,204 ²La ³vida´ (entre comillas enfáticas) es el consuelo de los que no saben pensar. ²³Life´ (in emphatic quotation marks) is the consolation of those who do not know how to think. #2,205 ²El corazón no se rebela contra la voluntad de Dios, sino contra los ³porqués´ que se atreven a atribuirle. ²The heart does not rebel against the will of God, but against the ³reasons´ they dare attribute to it.

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p. 359 #2,206 ²La publicidad no refrena mal alguno. Multiplica, en contra, las consecuencias deletéreas de los acontecimientos. ²Publicity does not curb a single evil. On the contrary, it multiplies the harmful consequences of events. #2,207 ²El que no sabe condenar sin temor no sabe apreciar sin miedo. ²He who does not know how to condemn without fear does not know how to appreciate without apprehension. #2,208 ²Cuidémonos de irrespetar al que posee la estupidez necesaria al correcto funcionamiento de las instituciones. ²Let us take care not to disrespect the man who possesses the stupidity necessary for the correct functioning of institutions. #2,209 ²Las instituciones mueren menos por infidelidad a su principio que por exceso de su principio mismo. ²Institutions die less from infidelity to their principle than from an excess of the principle itself. #2,210 ²Para reconstruir la genealogía de un sistema tenemos que aprender a dosificar finalmente la necesidad y la anécdota. ²To reconstruct the genealogy of a system, we must at last learn to quantify necessity and the anecdote. #2,211 ²El hombre soporta más fácilmente la persecución que la indiferencia. ¡Qué no ha hecho el clero moderno para atraer un poco de atención! ²Man bears persecution more easily than indifference. What have the modern clergy not done to attract a little attention? #2,212 ²Pensar contra es más difícil que actuar contra. ²To think against is more difficult than to act against. p. 360 #2,213 ²Ser cristiano es no estar solo, cualquiera que sea la soledad que nos circunde. ²To be a Christian is to not be alone, no matter the solitude that surrounds us.

#2,237 ²La posibilidad de venderle al público un artefacto cualquiera, en nombre del arte, es fenómeno democrático. Las épocas democráticas, en efecto, fomentan la incertidumbre del gusto al abrogar todo modelo. Si la obra de arte eximia es allí posible, el arte menor se muere y la extravagancia pulula. Donde una autoridad existe, en cambio, gustar de obras extrañas no es fácil, pero el gusto es infalible tratándose de lo contemporáneo y el arte menor florece. ²The possibility of selling to the public any man-made object in the name of art is a democratic phenomenon. Democratic ages, in effect, foment the uncertainty of taste by abolishing every model. If the most excellent work of art is still possible there, lesser art dies and extravagance abounds. Where an authority exists, on the other hand, enjoying unfamiliar works is not easy, but taste is infallible when dealing with contemporary art, and lesser art flourishes. #2,238 ²Sólo lo inalcanzable merece ser deseado, sólo lo alcanzable buscado. El que busca lo inalcanzable se enloquece, el que desea lo alcanzable se envilece. ²Only the unattainable deserves to be desired, only the attainable sought. He who seeks the unattainable goes mad, he who desires the attainable is degraded. p. 364 #2,239 ²Civilización es la suma de represiones internas y externas impuestas a la expansión informe de un individuo o de una sociedad. ²Civilization is the sum total of internal and external repressions imposed on the amorphous expansion of an individual or a society. #2,240 ²Para poder hablar desdeñosamente del gran escritor que pasó de moda el intelectual se abstiene de leerlo. ²In order to be able to speak disdainfully of the great writer who has passed out of fashion, the intellectual refrains from reading him. #2,241 ²Aún los odios de pequeña ciudad son más civilizados que la indiferencia mutua de las grandes. ²Even small-town grudges are more civilized than the mutual indifference of big cities. #2,242 ²Tratemos de definir las condiciones y las causas de la historia espiritual de una época, pero guardémonos de atribuirles la menor participación en sus aciertos. ²Let us try to define the conditions and the causes of the spiritual history of an age, but let us be careful not to attribute to them the least participation in the truths which that age discovered.

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#2,243 ²Las revoluciones son objeto de sociología más que de historia. Manifestaciones de ese fondo de la naturaleza humana que nada educa, nada civiliza, nada ennoblece, las revoluciones despojan al hombre de su historia y lo retornan a los comportamientos animales. ²Revolutions are more a subject for sociology than for history. Manifestations of those depths of human nature that nothing educates, nothing civilizes, nothing ennobles, revolutions despoil man of his history and return him to bestial behaviors. #2,244 ²El escritor de izquierda nunca escribe una historia sino ejemplifica un esquema. ²The leftist writer never writes a history, but rather illustrates an outline with examples. p. 365 #2,245 ²El más peligroso analfabetismo no es del que irrespeta todos los libros, sino el del que los respeta todos. ²The most dangerous illiteracy is not that of a man who disrespects all books, but that of a man who respects them all. #2,246 ²Hablar de ³madurez política´ de un pueblo es propio de inteligencias inmaduras. ²To speak of a people¶s ³political maturity´ is characteristic of immature intelligences. #2,247 ²La izquierda ya no se atreve a proclamarse esperanza, sino a lo sumo fatalidad. ²The left no longer dares proclaim itself a hope, but at the most fate. #2,248 ²Aun cuando sea imprevisible el acontecimiento es explicable, pero aun cuando sea explicable es imprevisible. ²Even when it is unforeseeable an event is explicable, but even when it is explicable it is unforeseeable. #2,249 ²Es más fácil ser misericordioso que no sentir envidia. ²It is easier to be compassionate than it is not to feel envy. #2,250 ²El peor totalitarismo no es el estatal ni el nacional, sino el social: la sociedad como meta englobante de todas las metas. ²The worst [type of] totalitarianism is not that of a state or a nation, but of society: society as the all-encompassing goal of all goals.

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#2,251 ²Razón, verdad, justicia, no suelen ser metas del hombre, sino nombres que da a sus metas. ²Reason, truth, justice, tend not to be man¶s goals, but the names he gives to his goals. p. 366 #2,252 ²Si existiera un instinto religioso, en lugar de experiencia religiosa, la religión carecería de importancia. ²If there existed a religious instinct, instead of religious experience, religion would lack importance. #2,253 ²El reaccionario no aspira a que se retroceda, sino a que se cambie de rumbo. El pasado que admira no es meta sino ejemplificación de sus sueños. ²The reactionary does not aspire to turn back, but rather to change direction. The past that he admires is not a goal but an exemplification of his dreams. #2,254 ²La impudicia es el disolvente de la sensualidad. ²Immodesty is the solvent of sensuality. #2,255 ²Mientras no comete la imprudencia de escribir, mucho hombre político pasa por inteligente. ²As long as he is not so imprudent as to write, many a political man passes for intelligent. #2,256 ²Hay que examinar cuidadosamente los tipos de apología de que el incrédulo más se mofa: pueden ser los que más lo inquietan. ²One must carefully examine the types of apologetics the unbeliever mocks the most: they might be those which disquiet him the most. #2,257 ²Poder entregar al adolescente que fuimos sus ambiciones incumplidas, pero sus sueños impolutos. ²To be able to deliver to the adolescent we were his ambitions unfulfilled, but his dreams unpolluted. #2,258 ²El problema de la educación de los educadores es problema que el demócrata olvida en su entusiasmo por la educación de los educandos. ²The problem of educating the educators is a problem which the democrat forgets in his enthusiasm for educating the pupils.

#2,314 ²Para corromper al individuo basta enseñarle a llamar derechos sus anhelos personales y abusos los derechos ajenos. ²To corrupt the individual it suffices to teach him to call his personal desires rights and the rights of others abuses. #2,315 ²Los placeres que colman suelen ser aquellos tan humildes que no les conocemos usualmente el nombre. ²The pleasures that fulfill us tend to be those so humble that we usually do not know their name. #2,316 ²La mayoría de nuestros fracasos se debe a la propiedad de las series empíricas de no tener ni fin ni inicio ciertos. El hombre rara vez sabe donde puede comenzar y dónde puede concluir. ²Most of our failures are due to that property of empirical series by which they have neither a certain end nor a certain beginning. Man rarely knows where he can start and where he can finish. p. 376 #2,317 ²El horror del progreso sólo puede medirlo el que ha conocido un paisaje antes y después que el progreso lo transforme. ²The horror of progress can only be measured by someone who has known a landscape before and after progress has transformed it. #2,318 ²La brevedad de la vida no angustia cuando en lugar de fijarnos metas nos fijamos rumbos. ²The brevity of life does not distress us when instead of fixing goals for ourselves we fix routes. #2,319 ²Aprender a morir es aprender a dejar morir los motivos de esperar sin dejar morir la esperanza. ²To learn to die is to learn to let the motives for hope die without letting hope die. #2,320 ²El norteamericano no resulta insoportable porque se crea individualmente importante, sino porque posee, en cuanto norteamericano, la solución de todo problema. ²The American is not intolerable because he believes he is important individually, but because he possesses, insofar as he is an American, the solution to every problem.

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#2,321 ²Sin la propagación de cultos orientales y sin las invasiones germánicas la civilización helenística hubiese iniciado, desde Roma, la americanización del mundo. ²Without the spread of oriental cults and without the Germanic invasions, Hellenistic civilization would have initiated, with Rome as its starting-point, the Americanization of the world. #2,322 ²Evitemos las profecías, si no queremos vivir de mal humor con la historia. ²Let us avoid prophecies, if we do not want to have to hold a grudge against history. #2,323 ²El gobernante democrático no puede adoptar una solución mientras no consiga el apoyo entusiasta de los que nunca entenderán el problema. ²The democratic ruler cannot adopt a solution as long as he does not receive the enthusiastic support of people who will never understand the problem. p. 377 #2,324 ²Mientras lo que escribimos no le parezca obsoleto al moderno, inmaduro al adulto, trivial al hombre serio, tenemos que volver a empezar. ²Unless what we write seems obsolete to modern man, immature to the adult, trivial to the serious man, we must start over. #2,325 ²El arte francés auténtico y la auténtica literatura francesa han vivido siempre al margen de esas ³últimas modas intelectuales de París´ que el extranjero tanto admira. ²Authentic French art and authentic French literature have always existed on the fringe of those ³latest Parisian intellectual fashions´ which the foreigner so admires. #2,326 ²La solución típicamente moderna de un problema cualquiera escandaliza siempre al que nació sensible a la calidad humana. ²The typically modern solution to any problem always scandalizes one who was born with a sensibility for human excellence. #2,327 ²En un mundo de estados soberanos toda doctrina, por universal que sea, acaba convertida en ideología más o menos oficial de uno de ellos. ²In a world of sovereign states every doctrine, no matter how universal, is eventually turned into the more or less official ideology of one of them. #2,328 ²Las grandes ferias industriales son el muestrario de todo lo que la civilización no requiere. ²The great industrial trade fairs are the showcase of everything civilization does not require.

#2,407 ²Dialogar con el imbécil es escabroso: nunca sabemos dónde lo herimos, cuándo lo escandalizamos, cómo lo complacemos. ²Dialogue with the imbecile poses difficulties: we never know where we harm him, when we scandalize him, [or] how we please him. #2,408 ²No es a ampliar nuestra ciencia a lo que podemos aspirar, sino a documentar nuestra ignorancia. ²It is not to increasing our knowledge to which we may aspire, but to documenting our ignorance. p. 389 #2,409 ²La evolución de las obras de arte en objetos de arte y de los objetos de arte en bienes de inversión o en artículos de consumo es fenómeno moderno. Proceso que no patentiza una difusión de lo estético, sino la culminación del economismo contemporáneo. ²The evolution of works of art into objects of art and of objects of art into investments or into articles for consumption is a modern phenomenon. A process that does not evidence a diffusion of the aesthetic, but rather the culmination of contemporary economism. #2,410 ²Comprender es finalmente hacer coincidir hecho tras hecho con nuestro propio misterio. ²To understand is finally to make fact after fact coincide with our own mystery. #2,411 ²En las agrupaciones humanas sólo se suman los defectos de los que se agrupan. ²In groups of humans, only the defects of those who join the group get added up. #2,412 ²Los museos son el castigo del turista. ²Museums are the tourist¶s punishment. #2,413 ²Después de cierta edad no debemos mirarnos los unos a los otros sino a media luz. ²After a certain age we should not look at each other except in dim light. #2,414 ²El peor irresponsable es el que asume cualquier responsabilidad sin ser constreñido. ²The worst sort of irresponsible man is one who assumes any responsibility without being forced to do so.

²The Christian faith in the last centuries has lacked intelligence, and Christian intelligence has lacked faith. Either it has not known how to be bold, or it has feared to be so. #2,448 ²Las auténticas recompensas tienen el privilegio de no ser codiciadas sino por diminutas minorías. ²Authentic rewards have the privilege of not being coveted except by tiny minorities. #2,449 ²Las civilizaciones entran en agonía cuando olvidan que no existe meramente una actividad estética, sino también una estética de la actividad. ²Civilizations enter into agony when they forget that there exists not merely an aesthetic activity, but also an aesthetic of activity. p. 395 #2,450 ²Bien y belleza no se excluyen mutuamente sino donde el bien sirve de pretexto a la envidia y la belleza a la lujuria. ²Goodness and beauty are not mutually exclusive except where goodness serves as a pretext for envy and beauty for luxury. #2,451 ²Conformismo y anticonformismo son expresiones simétricas de la falta de originalidad. ²Conformism and non-conformism are symmetrical expressions of a lack of originality. #2,452 ²El público no comienza a acoger una idea sino cuando los contemporáneos inteligentes comienzan a abandonarla. Al vulgo no llega sino la luz de estrellas extintas. ²The public does not begin to welcome an idea except when intelligent contemporaries begin to abandon it. No light reaches the masses but that of dead stars. #2,453 ²La juventud prolongada²permitida por la actual prosperidad de la sociedad industrial² redunda meramente en un número creciente de adultos puerilizados. ²A prolonged childhood²permitted by industrial society¶s current prosperity²redounds merely in a growing number of infantilized adults. #2,454 ²La ausencia de jerarquías legales facilita el ascenso de los menos escrupulosos. ²The absence of legal hierarchies facilitates the rise of the less scrupulous.

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#2,455 ²El predominio de las ciencias humanas le oculta cada vez más a la historiografía contemporánea la diferencia entre las épocas. ²The predominance of the social sciences hides more and more from contemporary historiography the difference between ages. #2,456 ²Este siglo ha logrado convertir el sexo en práctica trivial y tema odioso. ²This century has succeeded in turning sex into a trivial activity and an odious topic. p. 396 #2,457 ²A cierto nivel profundo toda acusación que nos hagan acierta. ²At a certain profound level every accusation they make against us hits the mark. #2,458 ²La indignación moral no es bien sincera mientras no termina literalmente en vómito. ²Moral indignation is not truly sincere unless it literally ends in vomiting. #2,459 ²El alma se llena de malezas si la inteligencia no la recorre diariamente como un jardinero acucioso. ²The soul grows full of weeds unless the intelligence inspects it daily like a diligent gardener. #2,460 ²Las barreras frecuentes que nos opone la vida no son obstáculos para derribar, son amonestaciones silenciosas que nos desvían hacia la certera senda. ²The barriers life frequently throws across our way are not obstacles for us to demolish; they are silent warnings that divert us onto the right path. #2,461 ²En toda ovación hay claque. ²In every ovation there is a claque. #2,462 ²Al arte de este final de siglo le vuelve uno pronto la espalda no porque espante con el escándalo de lo insólito, sino porque agobia con el tedio de lo ya visto. ²One soon turns one¶s back on the art of the end of this century not because it shocks one with the scandal of what is unusual, but because it overwhelms one with the tediousness of what has already been seen.

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#2,463 ²La ³mentalidad de propietario,´ tan vituperada por el moderno, se ha trocado en mentalidad de usufructuario que explota ávidamente personas, obras, cosas, sin pudor, sin piedad, sin vergüenza. ²The ³ownership mentality,´ so sharply censured by modern man, has transformed into a usufruct mentality that avidly exploits persons, works, things, without reserve, without pity, without shame. p. 397 #2,464 ²El gobierno de estas ínsulas americanas fue asumido desde la Independencia por los descendientes mestizos de Ginés de Pasamonte. ²The government of these American fiefdoms has been assumed since Independence by the mestizo descendants of Ginés de Pasamonte. #2,465 ²Lo nefasto no son las grandes ambiciones, sino la pululación de ambiciones mezquinas. ²What bodes ill is not great ambition, but the teeming of paltry ambitions. #2,466 ²En materia política son pocos los que aún solos no argumentan a nivel de reunión pública. ²When it comes to political matters, there are few who even in private do not argue at the level of a public meeting. #2,467 ²Si el tiempo, subjetivamente, nos hace cambiar de gusto, también hace, objetivamente, que las cosas cambien de sabor. ²If time, subjectively, makes us change taste, it also, objectively, makes things change flavor. #2,468 ²La curva del conocimiento del hombre por sí mismo asciende hasta el XVII, declina paulatinamente después, en este siglo finalmente se desploma. ²The curve of man¶s knowledge of himself ascends until the 17th century, declines gradually afterwards, in this century it finally plummets. #2,469 ²El único patrimonio certero al cabo de unos años es el acopio de estupideces que la casualidad nos impidió cometer. ²The only certain patrimony after a few years is the load of stupidities that chance prevented us from committing. #2,470 ²Periodista es aquel a quien basta, para hablar de un libro, conocer del tema del libro únicamente lo que dice el libro de que habla. ²A journalist is someone for whom it suffices, in order to speak about a book, to know of the book¶s topic only what the book he is speaking about says. 323

p. 398 #2,471 ²Cambiar repetidamente de pensamiento no es evolucionar. Evolucionar es desarrollar la infinitud de un mismo pensamiento. ²To change thoughts repeatedly is not to evolve. To evolve is to develop the infinitude of the same thought. #2,472 ²Desagradecimiento, deslealtad, resentimiento, rencor, definen el alma plebeya en toda época y caracterizan este siglo. ²Ingratitude, disloyalty, resentment, rancor define the plebeian soul in every age and characterize this century. #2,473 ²El hombre rara vez entiende que no hay cosas duraderas, pero que hay cosas inmortales. ²Man rarely understands that nothing is permanent, but that some things are immortal. #2,474 ²Las aristocracias son orgullosas, pero la insolencia es fenómeno plutocrático. El plutócrata cree que todo se vende; el aristócrata sabe que la lealtad no se compra. ²Aristocracies are proud, but insolence is a plutocratic phenomenon. The plutocrat believes that everything can be sold; the aristocrat knows that loyalty cannot be bought. #2,475 ²El uso descriptivo de anécdotas sociales tiene más exactitud caracterológica que los porcentajes estadísticos. ²The descriptive use of social anecdotes has more characterological exactitude than statistical percentages. #2,476 ²A los que infieren de la utilidad social de los mitos la utilidad social de la mentira debemos recordar que los mitos son útiles gracias a las verdades que expresan. ²We must remind those who infer from the social utility of myths the social utility of lies that myths are useful thanks to the truths they express. p. 399 #2,477 ²La historia muestra dos tipos de anarquía: la que emana de una pluralidad de fuerzas y las que deriva de una pluralidad de debilidades. ²History exhibits two types of anarchy: that which emanates from a plurality of forces and that which derives from a plurality of weaknesses.

#2,486 ²El hombre sólo puede ser ³faber´ de su infortunio. ²Man can only be ³faber´ of his misfortune. #2,487 ²El acercamiento a la religión por medio del arte no es capricho de esteta: la experiencia estética tiende espontáneamente a prolongarse en premonición de experiencia religiosa. De la experiencia estética se regresa como del atisbo de huellas numinosas. ²Approaching religion through art is not the caprice of an aesthete: aesthetic experience spontaneously tends to expand into a presentiment of religious experience. From an aesthetic experience one returns as from a sighting of numinous footprints. #2,488 ²En la sociedad jerárquica la fuerza de la imaginación se disciplina y no desorbita al individuo como en la sociedad democrática. ²In a hierarchical society imagination¶s force is disciplined and does not unhinge the individual as it does in a democratic society. #2,489 ²En todo individuo duerme el germen de los vicios y apenas el eco de las virtudes. ²In every individual sleeps the germ of the vices and the mere echo of the virtues. p. 401 #2,490 ²Es mediante la inteligencia cómo la gracia nos rescata de las peores ignominias. ²It is by means of intelligence that grace saves us from the worst disgraces. #2,491 ²Cultivado no es el hombre que ha disciplinado su inteligencia meramente, sino el que disciplina también los movimientos de su alma y hasta los gestos de sus manos. ²Not the man who has disciplined only his intelligence is cultivated, but rather the man who also disciplines the movements of his soul and even the gestures of his hands. #2,492 ²Mientras no lo tomen en serio, el que dice la verdad puede vivir un tiempo en una democracia. Después, la cicuta. ²As long as they do not take him seriously, the man who says the truth can live for a while in a democracy. Then, the hemlock. #2,493 ²El que quiera evitarse colapsos grotescos no debe buscar nada que lo colme en el espacio y en el tiempo. ²The man who wants to avoid grotesque collapses should not look for anything to fulfill him in space and time.

#2,511 ²La frase debe blandir las alas como halcón cautivo. ²A phrase should ruffle its wings like a falcon in captivity. #2,512 ²El hombre persigue el deseo y sólo captura la nostalgia. ²Man pursues desire and only captures nostalgia. #2,513 ²Lo difícil no es desnudarse, sino caminar sin regodearse de andar desnudo. ²What is difficult is not to strip naked, but to walk without taking pleasure in going around naked. #2,514 ²La soledad que hiela no es la carente de vecinos, sino la desertada por Dios. ²The most dispiriting [kind of] solitude is not one lacking in neighbors, but one deserted by God. #2,515 ²Los años no nos despluman de ilusiones sino de tonterías. ²The years do not deplume us of illusions but of stupidities. p. 405 #2,516 ²A la ciencia se le podría objetar la facilidad con que cae en manos de imbéciles, si el caso de la religión no fuese igualmente grave. ²One could object to science that it easily falls into the hands of imbeciles, if religion¶s case were not just as serious. #2,517 ²Los placeres abundan mientras no les confundimos los rangos. ²Pleasures abound as long as we do not confuse their ranks. #2,518 ²Las palabras llegan un día a manos del escritor paciente como bandadas de palomas. ²Words arrive one day in the hands of a patient writer like flocks of doves. #2,519 ²Cultivarse es aprender que cierta clase de preguntas carecen de sentido. ²To become cultivated is to learn that a particular class of questions is meaningless. #2,520 ²Los que nos confiesan dudar de la inmortalidad del alma parecen creer que tenemos interés en que su alma sea inmortal. ²Those who confess to us that they have doubts about the immortality of the soul appear to believe we have an interest in their soul being immortal. 329

#2,573 ²Las concesiones al adversario llenan de admiración al imbécil. ²Concessions to the adversary fill the imbecile with admiration. #2,574 ²La única pretensión que tengo es la de no haber escrito un libro lineal, sino un libro concéntrico. ²The only pretension I have is that of not having written a linear book, but a concentric book.

#2,618 ²Cada una de las sucesivas ortodoxias de una ciencia le parece verdad definitiva al discípulo. ²Each one of a science¶s successive orthodoxies appears to be the definitive truth to the disciple. #2,619 ²Todo lo físicamente posible le parece pronto al moderno plausible moralmente. ²Everything that is physically possible soon seems morally plausible to modern man. #2,620 ²El buen libro de ayer no le parece malo sino al ignorante; en cambio, el libro mediocre de hoy puede parecerle bueno hasta a un hombre culto. ²A good book from yesterday does not seem bad except to the ignoramus; on the other hand, a mediocre book from today can seem good even to a cultivated man. #2,621 ²Toda metafísica tiene que trabajar con metáforas, y casi todas acaban trabajando sólo sobre metáforas. ²All metaphysics must work with metaphors, and almost all end up only working on metaphors. #2,622 ²Las épocas de liberación sexual reducen a unos pocos gritos espasmódicos las ricas modulaciones de la sensualidad humana. ²Ages of sexual liberation reduce to a few spasmodic shouts the rich modulations of human sensuality. p. 424 #2,623 ²La existencia de la obra de arte demuestra que el mundo tiene significado. Aun cuando no diga cuál. ²The existence of a work of art demonstrates that the world has meaning. Even when it does not say what that meaning is. #2,624 ²Sólo la contemplación de lo inmediato nos salva del tedio en este incomprensible universo. ²Only the contemplation of the immediate saves us from tedium in this incomprehensible universe. #2,625 ²El peso de este mundo sólo se puede soportar postrado de hinojos. ²One can only support the weight of this world while on one¶s knees.

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#2,626 ²Los filósofos suelen influir más con lo que parecen haber dicho que con lo que en verdad dijeron. ²Philosophers tend to be more influential because of what they seem to have said rather than because of what they really said. #2,627 ²Las soluciones en filosofía son el disfraz de nuevos problemas. ²Solutions in philosophy are the disguise of new problems. #2,628 ²El sentido común es casa paterna a la cual la filosofía regresa, cíclicamente, desmirriada y flaca. ²Common sense is the paternal house to which philosophy returns, in cycles, feeble and emaciated. #2,629 ²Nada patentiza tanto los límites de la ciencia como las opiniones del científico sobre cualquier tema que no sea estrictamente de su profesión. ²Nothing makes clearer the limits of science than the scientist¶s opinions about any topic that is not strictly related to his profession. p. 425 #2,630 ²El hombre actual no admira sino los texto histéricos. ²Contemporary man admires only hysterical texts. #2,631 ²El hombre compensa la solidez de los edificios que levanta con la fragilidad de los cimientos sobre los cuales los construye. ²Man compensates for the solidity of the structures he erects with the fragility of the foundations upon which he builds them. #2,632 ²Pensamiento valiente y atrevido es el que no rehuye el lugar común. ²A valiant and daring thought is one that does not avoid the commonplace. #2,633 ²No es donde las alusiones mitológicas cesan donde la huella griega se borra, es donde los límites de lo humano se olvidan. ²It is not where mythological allusions disappear that the Greek imprint is wiped away; it is where the limits of the human are forgotten. #2,634 ²El prójimo nos irrita porque nos parece parodia de nuestros defectos. ²Our neighbor irritates us because he seems to us like a parody of our own defects. 344

p. 427 #2,643 ²El subjetivismo es la garantía que el hombre se inventa cuando deja de creer en Dios. ²Subjectivism is the guarantee that man invents for himself when he stops believing in God. #2,644 ²La permanente posibilidad de iniciar series causales es lo que llamamos persona. ²The permanent possibility of initiating causal series is what we call a person. #2,645 ²El libro que no escandalice un poco al experto no tiene razón de existir. ²The book that does not scandalize the expert a little has no reason to exist. #2,646 ²Los dos polos son el individuo y Dios: los dos antagonistas son Dios y el Hombre. ²The two poles are the individual and God; the two antagonists are God and Man. #2,647 ²La mayoría de las civilizaciones no han legado más que un estrato de detritos entre dos estratos de cenizas. ²The majority of civilizations have not passed on anything more than a stratum of detritus between two strata of ashes. #2,648 ²No confundamos el estrato específico del misterio con el estrato de lo inexplicable. Que puede ser meramente el de lo inexplicado. ²Let us not confuse the specific stratum of mystery with the stratum of the unexplainable. For it might be merely the stratum of the unexplained. #2,649 ²Sin previa carrera de historiador no debiera ser lícito especializarse en ciencias humanas. ²Without a previous career as an historian, no one should be allowed to specialize in the social sciences. #2,650 ²Del gran filósofo sólo sobreviven los aciertos: del filósofo subalterno sólo sobrenadan los errores. ²Of the great philosopher, only his good ideas survive; of the inferior philosopher, only his errors remain afloat. p. 428 #2,651 ²Las únicas metas que se les han ocurrido a los filósofos fijarle a la historia humana son todas tediosas o siniestras ²The only goals which it has occurred to the philosopher to set for human history are all tedious or sinister. 346

#2,652 ²La libertad embriaga al hombre como símbolo de independencia de Dios. ²Freedom intoxicates man as a symbol of independence from God. #2,653 ²Si la coyuntura no lo constriñe, no hay judío radicalmente de izquierda. El pueblo que descubrió el absolutismo divino no pacta con el absolutismo del hombre. ²Unless circumstances constrain him, there is no radically leftist Jew. The people that discovered divine absolutism does not make deals with the absolutism of man. #2,654 ²No es la vaga noción de ³servicio´ lo que merece respeto, sino la concreta noción de ³servidor.´ ²It is not the vague notion of ³service´ that deserves respect, but the concrete notion of ³servant.´ #2,655 ²Hay algo definitivamente vil en el que no admite sino iguales, en el que no se busca afanosamente superiores. ²There is something definitively vile about the man who only admits equals, who does not tirelessly seek out his betters. #2,656 ²Aun cuando no pueda ser acto de la razón la opción debe ser acto de la inteligencia. No hay opciones constrictivamente demostrables, pero hay opciones estúpidas. ²Even when it cannot be an act of reason, an option should be an act of the intelligence. There are no compellingly demonstrable options, but there are stupid options. p. 429 #2,657 ²Donde desaparece hasta el vestigio de nexos feudales, la creciente soledad social del individuo y su creciente desamparo lo funden pronto en masa totalitaria. ²Where even the last vestige of feudal ties disappears, the increasing social isolation of the individual and his increasing helplessness fuse him into a totalitarian mass. #2,658 ²Las tesis que el marxista ³refuta´ resucitan intactas a su espalda. ²The theses that the Marxist ³refutes´ come back to life unscathed behind his back. #2,659 ²Las ³libertades´ son recintos sociales en los cuales el individuo se puede mover sin coacción alguna; la ³Libertad,´ en cambio, es principio metafísico en nombre del cual una secta pretende imponer a los demás sus ideales de conducta. ²³Liberties´ are social precincts in which the individual can move without any coercion; ³Liberty,´ on the other hand, is a metaphysical principle in whose name a sect seeks to impose its ideals of conduct on everyone else. 347

#2,660 ²Cuando el tirano es la ley anónima, el moderno se cree libre. ²When the tyrant is the anonymous law, modern man believes he is free. #2,661 ²Pocas ideas no palidecen ante una mirada fija. ²Few ideas do not turn pale before a fixed glare. #2,662 ²Una mayor capacidad de matar es el criterio de ³progreso´ entre dos pueblos o dos épocas. ²A greater capacity for killing is the criterion of ³progress´ between two peoples or two epochs. #2,663 ²Criticar un presente en nombre de un pasado puede ser vano, pero haberlo criticado en nombre de un futuro suele resultar ridículo cuando ese futuro llega. ²To criticize a present in the name of a past can be futile, but to have criticized it in the name of a future can turn out to be risible when that future arrives. p. 430 #2,664 ²El mundo se llena de contradicciones cuando olvidamos que las cosas tienen rango. ²The world becomes filled with contradictions when we forget that things have ranks. #2,665 ²El ³arte moderno´ parece aún vivo porque no ha sido reemplazado, no porque no haya muerto. ²³Modern art´ still seems alive because it has not been replaced, not because it has not died. #2,666 ²La raíz del pensamiento reaccionario no es la desconfianza en la razón sino la desconfianza en la voluntad. ²The root of reactionary thought is not distrust of reason but distrust of the will. #2,667 ²Hasta fines del XVIII, lo que el hombre agregaba a la naturaleza acrecentaba su hermosura. Lo que agrega desde entonces la destruye. ²Until the end of the 18th century, what man added to nature increased its beauty. Since then, what he adds destroys it. #2,668 ²Nada podemos edificar sobre la bondad del hombre, pero sólo podemos edificar con ella. ²We can build nothing upon the goodness of man, but we can only build with it.

#2,752 ²El día se compone de sus momentos de silencio. Lo demás es tiempo perdido. ²The day is made up of its moments of silence. The rest is lost time. #2,753 ²El hombre solamente es importante si es verdad que un Dios ha muerto por él. ²Man is important only if it is true that a God has died for him. #2,754 ²El afán moderno de originalidad le hace creer al artista mediocre que en simplemente diferir consiste el secreto de la originalidad. ²The modern desire to be original makes the mediocre artist believe that simply being different is the secret to being original. #2,755 ²No todos los vencidos son decentes, pero todos los decentes resultan vencidos. ²Not all defeated men are decent, but all decent men end up defeated. #2,756 ²Aun los gobernantes más austeros acaban asistiendo al circo para complacer a la muchedumbre. ²Even the most austere rulers end up attending the circus in order to please the crowd. p. 443 #2,757 ²Todo en la historia comienza antes de donde creemos que comienza, y termina después de donde creemos que termina. ²Everything in history begins before where we think it begins, and ends after where we think it ends. #2,758 ²Desigualdad e igualdad son tesis que conviene defender alternativamente, a contrapelo del clima social que impere. ²Inequality and equality are theses that should be defended alternatively, in opposition to the dominant social climate. #2,759 ²Ni declaración de derechos humanos, ni proclamación de constituciones, ni apelación a un derecho natural, protegen contra la arbitrariedad del estado. Sólo es barrera al despotismo el derecho consuetudinario. ²Neither a declaration of human rights, nor the proclamation of a constitution, nor an appeal to natural law, protects against the arbitrary power of the state. The only barrier to despotism is customary law.

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#2,760 ²Sus prejuicios no embrutecen sino al que los cree conclusiones. ²A man does not become stultified by his prejudices unless he believes they are conclusions. #2,761 ²De soberanía de la ley sólo se puede hablar donde la función del legislador se reduzca a consultar el consenso consuetudinario a la luz de la ética. ²One can only speak of the sovereignty of the law where the legislator¶s function is reduced to consulting the consensus of custom in the light of ethics. #2,762 ²Las grandes teorías históricas se vuelven útiles cuando renuncian a querer explicar todo. ²Grand theories of history become useful when they give up trying to explain everything. p. 444 #2,763 ²La comprensión de lo individual y la comprensión de lo general se condicionan en historia recíprocamente. ²In history, understanding the individual and understanding the general condition each other reciprocally. #2,764 ²No hay ciencia humana tan exacta que el historiador no necesite corregirla y adaptarla para poderla utilizar. ²There is no social science so exact that the historian does not need to correct and adapt it to be able to use it. #2,765 ²Al hombre no lo educa el conocimiento de las cosas sino el conocimiento del hombre. ²Man does not become educated through the knowledge of things but through the knowledge of man. #2,766 ²La patanería intelectual es el defecto que en este siglo menos sabemos evitar. ²Intellectual boorishness is the defect that we least know how to avoid in this century. #2,767 ²Determinar cuál es la causa y cuál el efecto suele ser en historia problema insoluble. ²Determining what is the cause and what is the effect tends to be an insoluble problem in history. #2,768 ²El hombre nunca calcula el precio de cualquier comodidad que conquista. ²Man never calculates the price of any comfort he gains.

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#2,769 ²No hay casualidad en historia que no se supedite a la casualidad de las circunstancias. ²There is no coincidence in history that does not submit to the coincidence of the circumstances. #2,770 ²La noción de determinismo ha ejercido un terrorismo corruptor de la faena filosófica. ²The notion of determinism has exercised a corrupting and terrorizing influence on the task of philosophy. p. 445 #2,771 ²Sólo se puede releer al que sugiere más de lo que expresa. ²Only he who suggests more than what he expresses can be reread. #2,772 ²Nadie ignora que los acontecimientos históricos se componen de cuatro factores: necesidad, casualidad, espontaneidad, libertad. Sin embargo rara es la escuela historiográfica que no pretende reducirlos a uno solo. ²Nobody is ignorant of the fact that historical events are made up of four factors: necessity, coincidence, spontaneity, freedom. Nevertheless, it is rare to find a school of historiography that does not seek to reduce them to a single factor. #2,773 ²³Necesidad histórica´ suele ser meramente nombre de la estupidez humana. ²³Historical necessity´ is usually just a name for human stupidity. #2,774 ²El espectáculo de la humanidad no adquiere cierta dignidad sino gracias a la deformación a que el tiempo lo somete en la historia. ²The spectacle of humanity does not acquire a certain dignity except thanks to the distortion it undergoes in history due to time. #2,775 ²El político nunca dice lo que cree cierto, sino lo que juzga eficaz. ²The politician never says what he believes to be true, but rather what he considers to be effective. #2,776 ²Más que del inquietante espectáculo de la injusticia triunfante, es del contraste entre la fragilidad terrestre de lo bello y su esencia inmortal en donde nace la esperanza de otra vida. ²Rather than from the disturbing spectacle of injustice triumphing, it is from the contrast between the earthly fragility of the beautiful and its immortal essence that the hope of another life is born.

p. 452 #2,819 ²Pasada la embriaguez de la juventud, sólo los lugares comunes nos parecen merecer cuidadoso examen. ²Once the intoxication of youth is over, only commonplaces appear to us to deserve careful examination. #2,820 ²La tolerancia ilimitada no es más que una manera hipócrita de dimitir. ²Unlimited tolerance is nothing more than a hypocritical way of resigning. #2,821 ²Tolerar hasta ideas estúpidas puede ser virtud social; pero es virtud que tarde o temprano recibe su castigo. ²Tolerating even stupid ideas can be a social virtue; but it is a virtue that sooner or later receives its punishment. #2,822 ²La palabrería desatada por una ilimitada libertad de expresión acaba reduciendo errores y verdades a una igual insignificancia. ²The onslaught of words unleashed by an unlimited freedom of expression ends up reducing errors and truths to an equal insignificance. #2,823 ²³Utilidad social´ es criterio que degrada un poco lo que pretende justificar. ²³Social utility´ is a criterion that slightly degrades what it seeks to justify. #2,824 ²Riqueza de mercader, de industrial, de financista, es estéticamente inferior a riqueza en tierra y rebaños. ²The wealth of the merchant, of the industrialist, of the financier, is aesthetically inferior to wealth in land and flocks. #2,825 ²De una acentuación equivocada provienen la mayoría de los errores en nuestra interpretación del mundo. ²It is from a mistaken accentuation that the majority of the errors in our interpretation of the world proceed. p. 453 #2,826 ²Lo difícil en todo problema moral o social estriba en que su solución acertada no es cuestión de todo o nada, sino de más o de menos. ²What is difficult about every moral or social problem is based on the fact that its appropriate solution is not a question of all or nothing, but of more or less.

#2,981 ²El elector ni siquiera vota por lo que quiere, tan sólo vota por lo que cree querer. ²The voter does not even vote for what he wants; he only votes for what he thinks he wants. #2,982 ²En su afán pueril y vano de seducir al pueblo, el clero moderno concede a los programas socialistas la función de esquemas realizadores de las Bienaventuranzas. El truco consiste en reducir a una estructura colectiva y externa al individuo, un comportamiento ético que si no es individual e interno no es nada. El clero moderno predica, en otros términos, que hay una reforma social capaz de borrar las consecuencias del pecado. De lo que se puede deducir la inutilidad de la redención por Cristo. ²In their childish and vain attempt to attract the people, the modern clergy give socialist programs the function of being schemes for putting the Beatitudes into effect. The trick behind it consists in reducing to a collective structure external to the individual an ethical behavior that, unless it is individual and internal, is nothing. The modern clergy preach, in other words, that there is a social reform capable of wiping out the consequences of sin. From which one can deduce the pointlessness of redemption through Christ. p. 477 #2,983 ²Los Evangelios y el Manifiesto comunista palidecen; el futuro del mundo está en poder de la Coca-Cola y la pornografía. ²The Gospels and the Communist Manifesto are on the wane; the world¶s future lies in the power of Coca-Cola and pornography. #2,984 ²Lo importante no es que el hombre crea en la existencia de Dios, lo importante es que Dios exista. ² What is important is not that man believe in the existence of God; what is important is that God exist. #2,985 ²La envidia suele ser el verdadero resorte de las indignaciones morales. ²Envy tends to be the true force behind moral indignation. #2,986 ²El rival de Dios no es nunca la creatura concreta que amamos. Lo que termina en apóstasis es la veneración del hombre, el culto de la humanidad. ²The particular creature we love is never God¶s rival. What ends in apostasy is the worship of man, the cult of humanity.

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#2,987 ²Ocuparse intensamente de la condición del prójimo le permite al cristiano disimularse sus dudas sobre la divinidad de Cristo y la existencia de Dios. La caridad puede ser la forma más sútil de la apostasía. ²Concerning himself intensely with his neighbor¶s condition allows the Christian to dissimulate to himself his doubts about the divinity of Christ and the existence of God. Charity can be the most subtle form of apostasy. #2,988 ²Escribir es la única manera de distanciarse del siglo en el que le cupo a uno nacer. ²Writing is the only way to distance oneself from the century in which it was one¶s lot to be born.